Finance Law Abridges Free Speech

Re “High Court Upholds Most of Campaign Finance Law,” Dec. 11:

The absolutely shocking Supreme Court ruling upholding the bans on political advertising contained in Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold’s (D-Wis.) Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 spells the death knell for the U.S. Constitution.

The 1st Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.... “ To abridge, the dictionary says, means to “curtail or lessen, as rights.... “ What about “Congress shall make no law” or “abridge” does the court not understand? Would an amendment stating that the Constitution means what it says help?

Our founders tried to make their intent as plain as humanly possible, but our present-day scoundrels, who are to Jefferson, Washington, et al, as pebbles of sand are to mountains, have completed the dismantling of our protections from a rapacious state. Fortunately, I am old and will probably not live to experience it, but my grandchildren will learn to fear the knock on the door at night. It is now only a matter of time.

The Constitution had been comatose for some time. With this ruling, the Supreme Court pronounced it officially dead and presided over its burial.

Walter Bales

Anaheim

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In opposing the court’s ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “This is a sad day for the freedom of speech.” What he apparently does not understand is that those with the most money can afford more freedom of speech and therefore exert more influence.

William P. Mouzis

Lake Balboa

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The McCain-Feingold law, like all other campaign finance reform laws, is a manifestation of the inability of people to place blame upon themselves.

The reason that politicians are influenced by corporations and large special interests is because they need great sums of money to win elections -- this nobody can doubt.

But the reason that bloated campaign coffers provide such an advantage is that people allow themselves to be influenced by the mindless and simplistic campaign advertisements that the money pays for.

If more Americans were willing to do research and make intelligent and informed decisions about candidates and issues, then no amount of big-money contributions would have any effect on an election.

But rather than taking responsibility for the corruption that our political inattention has caused, we push for laws that put blatantly unconstitutional limits on political speech.

Joshua Belsky

Santa Monica