![]() ![]() He used a vision of the First Amendment as protecting the marketplace of ideas from intrusion by the legislature, even if that intrusion was based on concerns of fairness. Kennedy noted that the government does not have the authority to level the playing field among speakers such that each speaker has equal access to the public. It appeared that the majority used a heightened standard of review, similar to strict scrutiny. As a result, the section of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that banned independent expenditures by corporations and unions was unconstitutional. The Court overruled precedents that restricted political spending by unions and corporations during elections, finding that they were constitutionally permitted to support or oppose candidates, as long as they did not contribute to their campaigns or parties directly. Valeo, which held that spending money can be critical to exercising the freedom of speech, the majority also ruled that corporations have First Amendment rights and can spend money to exercise them. When a federal district court reviewed a challenge to these actions, it found that the advertisements for the documentary violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, since the film was essentially a negative commercial against Clinton despite its alleged presentation of objectively accurate facts about her.īuilding on Buckley v. Citizens United aimed to promote it on television and show the film as an on-demand offering on DirecTV. One of these, a negative documentary on Senator and prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton known as Hillary: The Movie, was completed before the 2008 elections. Since the FEC stated that these rules did not apply to the bona fide production of films for commercial purposes, Citizens United remodeled itself to meet these criteria and began producing documentary films. (Bush was running for president again as the incumbent.) The FEC found a lack of evidence to support the allegations and dismissed the complaint, as well as a later complaint alleging that the advertisements violated the Taft-Hartley Act. ![]() This law had amended the Federal Election Campaign Act to forbid corporations from funding broadcast advertisements mentioning a candidate 30 days before a primary election or 60 days before a general election. They argued that the advertisements for the film were political advertising, which would bring them within the restrictions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. In 2004, conservative nonprofit organization Citizens United brought a complaint to the Federal Election Commission regarding Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary that discussed the events of Septemfrom a perspective unfavorable to George W. ![]()
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