Pope: Freedom to criticize protected
Published June 22, 2014
by Art Pope, State Budget Director, published in News and Observer, June 21, 2014.
In regard to Ned Barnett’s June 15 column, “ McKissick’s testimony irks Art Pope”: I was not simply irked but horrified that the Democratic Party and state Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr. want to amend the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution to end freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights is very clear, stating, “Congress shall make no law ..., abridging the freedom of speech.”
The amendment to the U.S. Constitution supported by McKissick states that “Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to Federal elections” and that states can regulate with respect to state elections.
McKissick wants to limit freedom of speech in order to stop groups from making independent expenditures to criticize politicians during elections, using North Carolina’s 2010 elections as an example. Of course, the facts are that the Democratic Party and its progressive allies spent the most money during the 2010 North Carolina legislative elections, yet the Republicans won 59 percent of the statewide vote.
Regardless of who spent the most money, spending money to inform the public about incumbent politicians during an election is not buying the election. The right to criticize politicians is the heart of the First Amendment. Are there no principled liberals in the Democratic Party who will defend freedom of speech?
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/21/3952268/art-pope-freedom-to-criticize.html?sp=/99/108/
June 22, 2014 at 11:22 am
Vicki Boyer says:
Money is not speech. Money is simply an amplifier that allows the speech of some to drown out the speech of others.
June 22, 2014 at 7:08 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Money has been deemed speech by the Supreme Court. The Court has said that spending money to speak is protected. Therefore, money is speech.
It is also true that just because you have money, no law can or should be created to prevent you from using your money to promote your speech.
Mr. Barber is free to speak, using money or not. It's just that he doesn't have anything useful to say, so there are some of us who have better things to do with our time than to listen to his speech.
It always comes down to my ears. I can NOT be forced by ANYONE to listen to any speech that doesn't interest me or any speech that I know to be useless waste of time.
June 23, 2014 at 3:12 pm
Joey Stansbury says:
A microphone, like the one "Rev." William "John 2:16" uses every week is simply an amplifier that allows the speech of some to drown out the speech of others.
Maybe you can enlighten us to the appropriate level of speech that is allowed for all people - not just regarding money.
