The proposed amendment would allow Congress to strip average citizens of their rights to engage in core political speech about issues and candidates. It is nothing short of an attempt to prevent Americans from speaking about their political views. For democrats, less speech is more important than the freedom of speech.
Interestingly, the Udall amendment claims “political equality” as its goal. Yet, restrictions on the free speech rights of corporations, such as unions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, et cetera, actually enhance the political inequality supporters of the amendment fear. Udall, and others, make the mistake of only considering corporate spending in isolation of other speech.
George Mason Law Professor Ilya Somin has pointed out how the absence of corporate speech amplifies the inequality of influence that celebrities, the super-wealthy, and media personalities have in their political speech. Reduction of speech by corporations, unions, and nonprofit organizations will, according to Somin, disproportionally increase the power of these other actors. Senate Democrats would rather Americans only listen to the New York Times or Sean Penn for their political insight instead of the wide variety of political speech Americans currently enjoy.
