in free speech and campaign finance debate, is precedent passe?
With Justices Anthony Kennedy ’61, Antonin Scalia ’60 and Clarence Thomas having explicitly urged reversal of two key campaign finance reform cases in previous opinions, all eyes were on Chief Justice John Roberts ’79 and Justice Alito at the re-argument of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This critically important case pits the First Amendment rights of unions and corporations against over a century of campaign finance reforms going back to the 1907 Tillman Act. In granting re-argument of the case, which was initially before the Court last term, the parties were instructed to argue whether two precedents are ripe for reconsideration: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652 (1990) and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003). In the 1990 Austin decision – which Justice Scalia referred to in his sardonic dissent as an “Orwellian” limitation on corporate speech – the Court upheld Michigan’s ban on independent corporate expenditures supporti
