A Federal court in Virginia has ruled a law prohibiting corporations from making political contributions is unconstitutional. The ruling draws from last year’s landmark Citizens United decision.
I agree with the decision as a matter of policy. I also agree that the law is unconstitutional, reasoning from first principles. But from existing case law, I don’t think that this holds up. Citizens United found it unconstitutional to limit the speech of people in corporations, but it didn’t find campaign finance restrictions unconstitutional. Under existing case law, direct political spending is speech, but political contributions are not. Consequently, I don’t think Citizens United applies.
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