The DISCLOSE Act is a testament to the wisdom of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. The First Amendment sought to place political speech beyond the government’s control, and we can be glad that it did. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
Every major federal campaign-finance-reform effort since 1943 has attempted to treat corporations and unions equally. If a limit applied to corporations, it applied to unions; if unions could form PACs, corporations could too; and so on. DISCLOSE is the first major campaign-finance bill that has not taken this approach. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
Incumbents don’t like it, but political competition is a good thing. Incumbents usually outspend challengers by better than 3 to 1. Super PACs, which tend to support challengers, have nullified some of this advantage. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
Few developments in campaigning have been as vilified and misunderstood as independent expenditure PACs, or, as they are colloquially known, super PACs. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
Ultimately, the court is heading to a doctrine of ‘separation of campaign and state.’ This doctrine, like separation of church and state or separation of military and civilian authority, is not explicit in the Constitution but flows naturally from its structure and commitment to freedom and democracy. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
Unlike many in the conservative camp, I accept theories of global warming, and accept that man-made activity has played a part in global warming. My differences have only been on what the solutions should be. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
The usual test under the Federal Election Campaign Act for whether something counts as a campaign expenditure is whether the obligation would have existed but for the campaign. If so, it is not a campaign expenditure. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
If candidates spend money on ads and other political speech and their opponents are rewarded with government handouts to attack them, that chills speech and is unconstitutional. Non-participating candidates certainly don’t volunteer to allow their opponents to receive taxpayer subsidies to bash them. Bradley A. Smith Read Quote
