Corporate Expenditures on Political Speech
Overview of Supreme Court Precedent
Representing an important new emphasis on First Amendment protection of corporate free speech, in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978), the Supreme Court held that the fact that the corporation is the speaker does not limit the scope of the speaker’s interests in free expression, as the scope of First Amendment protection turns on the nature of the speech, not the identity of the speaker. However, as demonstrated in Federal Election Commission (FEC) v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Inc. (MCFL) (1986) and Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990), the fact that the speaker is a corporation may…
