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"Hillary: The Movie" ...
... never
became a blockbuster. The Federal Election Commission
restricted Citizens United's ability to advertise the film during the
2008 primary season, a decision that Bossie and other conservative
activists saw as a threat to their freedom of speech.
When the Supreme Court first heard the case in
March, Deputy Solicitor
General Malcolm L. Stewart, representing the FEC, was pulled into a
discussion of an issue that took him down a slippery slope: If the
movie were a book, would the government ban publishing the book if it
mentioned a candidate for office within the election time frame?
Stewart (representing the FEC) said that it could.
"That's pretty incredible," Justice Samuel A. Alito
Jr. said.
Then came questions about electronic devices such as the Kindle.
"If it has one name, one use of the candidate's name, it would be
covered, correct?" Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked.
"That's correct," Stewart replied.
"It's a 500-page book, and at the end it says, 'And so vote for X,' the
government could ban that?" Roberts asked.
Bossie said this was the argument that turned a majority of the bench
against the FEC and in favor of Citizens United.
"That sent a chill down the Supreme Court," Bossie said. The argument
became a "point of demarcation."
Citizens United spent about $1.25 million in legal fees on the case --
so much, Bossie said, that it "makes you cry." --[WaPost,
"The film that cracked the case"]
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it is. It's worth watching, and making others watch, at gunpoint
if
necessary. Okay, maybe not that. By the way, the four
disenters were
- guess who? Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer, and
Sodahead |
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