The case that protected corporate spending in elections
Clip: 9/22/2023 | 2m 26sVideo has Closed Captions
Learn how the First Amendment protects independent spending by corporations in elections.
During the 2008 presidential elections, Citizens United, a conservative non-profit organization, wanted to air a film criticizing then-democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Although Abrams disagreed with the politics of the film, he argued that Citizens United were within their rights to air the film, declaring that the First Amendment protects independent spending by corporations in elections.
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
The case that protected corporate spending in elections
Clip: 9/22/2023 | 2m 26sVideo has Closed Captions
During the 2008 presidential elections, Citizens United, a conservative non-profit organization, wanted to air a film criticizing then-democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Although Abrams disagreed with the politics of the film, he argued that Citizens United were within their rights to air the film, declaring that the First Amendment protects independent spending by corporations in elections.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- I represented Mitch McConnell.
Not my favorite public servant.
- So let me turn first to Floyd Abrams.
- [Floyd] But I agreed with his views on this.
- Thank you, Senator.
I'm delighted to be here in rather unaccustomed company.
(politician chuckles) It's the oldest of cliches that politics makes strange bedfellows.
It is not at all strange that people who disagree politically can come together in defending the First Amendment.
- Right away, we're in the area where there is the absolute most First Amendment protection.
Nothing's more important than speech about who to vote for, and maybe nothing, nothing, nothing is more important than who to vote for for President.
That was an easy case.
That must be one in which the First Amendment carries the day.
- I actually was at the Citizens United Argument.
I was a young lawyer in the Obama White House Counsel's Office, and the White House would often send lawyers to the court for kind of big, significant arguments.
Citizens United was initially a pretty narrow case.
It's actually not really about a ban on anything, but about just like a limitation on when you could spend money and how you could spend money.
But then the court, when everyone was expecting the case to be decided in June of 2009, the court conspicuously set the case for re-argument and reframing in much, much broader terms.
- [Chief Justice] Mr. Abrams.
- [Floyd] Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court.
The first case- - He didn't go small.
He went big.
He said, "This is an opportunity.
You could decide this case on narrow grounds."
There's good arguments to be made that the court should have decided on the narrow grounds, but justices, you should please make a big, bold statement saying that "the First Amendment protects independent spending by corporations in candidate elections."
(epic music)
Dan Abrams on defending his father's work on Citizens United
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Dan Abrams discusses how he admires his father for working on cases he may not agree with. (3m 40s)
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Follow the 50-year career of preeminent First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams. (2m 20s)
The history of the First Amendment
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"We were making up, in a sense, First Amendment law as we went along," said Floyd Abrams. (2m 48s)
When The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers
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The New York Times sought the legal counsel after publishing the Pentagon Papers. (2m 22s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...