On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Tim May wrote:

...

Many of us don't believe this common belief today, that the First is mainly about political speech, is consistent with the intent of the Framers.

If you're talking about tobacco advertising or dirty pictures on the Net, politicians will tell you "Oh, No, the Freedom-of-speech-and-press stuff in the First Amendment isn't about that, it's about protecting political speech." But if you're talking about campaign finance, "well, no, elections are too important to let people with money pay to have their opinions published, that would corrupt the election process." We've got a current case in California, reported in the 8/21 SF Chronicle, where Gov. Gray Davis is asking a judge to block psuedonymous TV ads criticizing his atrocious mishandling of the electricity crisis. This is pure political speech, not even mentioning elections or opposing politicians, just slamming the "Gray-outs from Gray Davis". According to the article by Ray Delgado, Davis's campaign committee sued, complaining that the American Taxpayers Alliance, based in DC, broke California law by not registering with the CA secretary of state as a political organization and not disclosing the identities of its donors. They spent about $2M, and it's headed by Scott Reed, a Republican campaign consultant, and registed with the IRS as a non-profit corporation. Delgado says that Time Magazine identified Reliant Energy as a big contributor, and the Center for Responsive Politics says their prime donors are oil&gas companies (big surprise there, eh?) The Alliance's lawyer, James Bopp, says that this ad is an assessment of the gov's performance in office, and protected by the First. Davis's mouthpiece is Joseph Remcho, and the Judge is San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia. (Of course, I'd be extremely surprised if the ad also criticizes Davis's predecessor, Republican Party Reptile Pete Wilson, whose economic cluelessness got us into this mess, leaving behind a system that would take *far* more economic competence than any major Democrat can be expect to have to repair it.)