Hillary the Movie: A Test Case for Free Speech

Dr. UnSpin~ I'll be back to look at this and apply my trade:

A documentary film called Hillary the Movie is now the subject of a Supreme Court free speech case testing the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law provisions against campaign ads. The ruling will affect free speech in America for decades to come.

Hillary the Movie, produced by David Bossie, is a critical documentary that was released during the 2008 Presidential campaign by a group called Citizens United, which is now a party to the Supreme Court case. Hillary the Movie was shown in eight theaters Citizens United ran into trouble when it tried to run TV ads publicizing the film and air the film on pay for view cable TV. The lower courts labeled Hillary the Movie a "90 minute attack ad" and therefore subject to McCain Feingold restrictions. "Federal courts said the ads would violate the McCain-Feingold law, the popular name for 2002 revisions to the nation's campaign finance laws. Judges called "Hillary: The Movie" a 90-minute attack ad, rulings that would require Citizens United to identify the financial backers for the ads if they were to appear on television."The court also said that if Bossie's group showed the movie on cable television, financial backers would have to be named and the group would have to pay the cost of airing the movie."Citizens United countered that Hillary the Movie is not an attack ad at all, but a critical documentary comparable to segments run on such shows as 60 Minutes and Frontline. Journalist groups and civil libertarians fear that if the lower court ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court, a chilling effect will occur on the free dissemination of ideas on the airways.The whole idea that the government can regulate or censor political speech is absurd on its face. The Constitution clearly states, "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." One wonders what it is about "no law" that Congress and the courts do not understand. [ ARTCILE LINK ]