Posted by
Billy on Thursday, February 04, 2010 12:52:05 PM
In expansive remarks
at a law school in Florida, Justice Clarence
Thomas on Tuesday vigorously defended the Supreme
Court’s recent campaign finance decision.
And Justice Thomas explained that he did not attend State of the Union addresses
— he missed the dust-up when President
Obama used the occasion last week to criticize the court’s decision —
because the gatherings had turned so partisan.
Justice Thomas responded to several questions from students at Stetson
University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., concerning the campaign finance
case, Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, with Justice Thomas
in the majority, the court ruled last month that corporations had a First
Amendment right to spend money to support or oppose political candidates.
“I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it
were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company,” Justice Thomas
said. “These are corporations.”
The part of the McCain-Feingold law struck down in Citizens United contained
an exemption for news reports, commentaries and editorials. But Justice Thomas
said that reflected a legislative choice rather than a constitutional
principle.
(Good for Justice Thomas. To find out more of his thoughts go here.)
