The irony of Ben & Jerry's opposition to Citizens United should not go unnoticed — Excess of Democracy
A public radio station recently announced that Ben & Jerry have started a movement against Citizens United. (I obtained the story from Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog.) The irony should not go unnoticed.
First, their movement is a corporate movement speaking out against other corporations speaking. "The Stamp Stampede" is a project of "Power People Initiatives," a Vermont nonprofit corporation, funded by the "International Forum on Globalization," a California nonprofit corporation. These corporations are speaking out in support of a political movement against corporations who want to speak out on politics.
Second, there are arguably federal laws that make their project--stamping money with an advertisement of their Web address-illegal, most notably 18 U.S.C. § 475, which prohibits anyone from advertising on currency. But they have obtained alegal opinion from an attorney who assured them that the First Amendment could not extend to such "clearly protected political speech." If only there were other judicial opinions that struck down federal laws that burdened political speech that might be useful in addressing such a ban....
The irony of Ben & Jerry's opposition to Citizens United should not go unnoticed — Excess of Democracy
