It's bad enough that a majority of the court rejected this reasoning, but it is indefensible that the same court earlier this session made it more difficult for Americans to exercise their legitimate First Amendment rights to speak out against candidates who would appoint like-minded judges. In its December 2003 decision in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the court ruled that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law could restrict the right of interest groups to run ads that mention a candidate's name within 60 days of an election unless the ads are paid for entirely by small donations. So any group that has problems with Tuesday's ruling had better be careful about putting ads on the air this fall to support the election of federal candidates who might appoint or confirm judges who differ with this court.
But isn't political speech -- not pornography -- exactly what the Founders were trying to protect when they added the First Amendment to the Constitution? Talk about obscenity, this court's convoluted rulings on free speech come awfully close.