Fifty Years Ago, the Supreme Court Said Money Is Speech
Last week was the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision enshrining the idea that money in politics is not corruption, but constitutionally protected speech. States and cities across the US are battling the rotten legacy of that decision.
Two current cases — including one originally spearheaded by Vice President J. D. Vance — may give John Roberts’s Supreme Court the opportunity to go even further than the Citizens United decision. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Last week marked the fifty-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision enshrining the absurd idea that money in politics is not corruption, but constitutionally protected speech.
As the Lever unearthed in our recent audio series and book Master Plan, that once radical concept was pioneered by soon-to-be federal judge Ralph Winter and a young John Bolton in a booklet for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) — and the ill-fated Buckley v. Valeo case was bankrolled in part by GOP mega-influencer and donor Charles Koch.
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