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Recent Editorials |
Free Speech in Seattleby Ryan Sager
On Thursday, free speech won an important victory in Washington state, as the Supreme Court there overturned a judge's ruling that pure political speech (in this case, the speech of two conservative talk-radio hosts in favor of an anti-tax ballot initiative) could be treated as a campaign contribution, and thus regulated and suppressed. Well, despite how clear-cut the case was, it wasn't a sure thing that the decision would be cheered in all quarters... In particular, I've been waiting for the reaction of the editorial board of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The Seattle P-I actively cheered on the judge's ruling that attacked free speech. It was a puzzling stance for a news organization to take. The only motivation seemed to be that the liberal paper was on the opposite side of the gas-tax issue from the conservative talk-radio hosts having their speech suppressed. At the time, I went after the P-I in print, and called up the editorial-page editor to see what on earth they were thinking over there on the Left Coast. Now, we have the P-I's editorial reacting to the Washington State Supreme Court decision. The paper seems to have come around, declaring that the hosts' "free speech rights covered their activism. The outcome is a good one in that regard." I take this as just one more small sign that, over time, the war against campaign-finance "reform" is being won by the side that respects the First Amendment. We've had this Washington decision struck down. The Supreme Court struck down Vermont's scheme limiting campaign spending. We have the Supreme Court considering a case that could undo McCain-Feingold's heinous ban on ads by independent groups in the days leading up to national elections. It will take some time to undo the damage that's already been done. But more and more people are waking up to the fact that "reform" just means letting the government decide what is and isn't acceptable speech. And that's flatly incompatible with the First Amendment and the American way of politics.
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