Political Quotes

“I rise to call my colleagues' attention to an article by the distinguished First Amendment scholar, Ronald Dworkin, ``Free Speech And The Dimensions Of Democracy.'' The article appears in If Buckley Fell: A First Amendment Blueprint for Regulating Money in Politics, sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law. Professor Dworkin's work illustrates a point some of us made during the recent debate on campaign finance reform: the shocking state of our current political life is a perversion of the public discourse envisioned by the Founding Fathers, a perversion directly rooted in the mistaken understanding of the First Amendment underlying the Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976). As Professor Dworkin puts it, ``[o]ur politics are a disgrace and money is the root of the problem.'' There is no need to detail the disgraceful state of our political life brought about by politicians' need to chase dollars.”