Money is Not Free Speech

by Nicholas Caleb

“MONEY! IS! NOT FREE SPEECH!”

“MONEY! IS! NOT FREE SPEECH!”

I spent three years of my life at the University of Oregon School of Law painfully internalizing the finer details of the tortured pro-corporate / anti-human tripe that passes for judicial legal reasoning in the Supreme Court. Outside of some significant decisions during the Civil Rights Era, I believe that the Court has been given a largely undeserved reputation for being a great protector of civil rights. And in my lifetime, it has been not much more than a haven for radical free-market ideologues who will subvert the meaning of any otherwise-decent doctrine for the benefit of big business or political friends. At least since Bush v. Gore fully revealed the cynical, ideological, and cronyist nature of a majority of this institution’s members, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court has been in steady decline as far right wing opinions and conflict of interest scandals have been the new norm. I only mention this to give a context for the amazing release of pent up emotion and sense of vindication I experienced when I, along with thousands of Occupy Congress comrades, stormed the steps of the Supreme Court to repudiate Citizens United at its source, with common sense reasoning so simple, clear, and full of force that even a Supreme Court Justice could understand. Apparently, this was the largest protest on the steps of the Supreme Court in a very long time (maybe ever), because, well… it’s illegal to do it. It is a memory that I will cherish for as long as I live.

(watch at 2:50 for the line)

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