Political Quotes

“Senate Joint Resolution 18 almost certainly represents the most serious and fundamental attack on first amendment rights of free speech in the 210-year history of that first amendment. Senate Joint Resolution 18 is not aimed at the entire ambit of free speech rights. It in no way grants Congress authority over obscenity, over beer advertising, over fine arts. It is focused solely on allowing the Congress sweeping authority over the freedom of political speech, not just of politicians but of all citizens and of the news media that serve those citizens. The first Congress of the United States responded to the most serious objection to the ratification of our Constitution that was presented during those ratification debates--the absence of a bill of rights and, most particularly, the absence of a constitutional guarantee of free speech. When James Madison and his colleagues drafted the first amendment and worked on its protection of free speech, they were not concerned, Mr. President, about defending obscenity. They were not concerned with limitations on beer advertising. They were not concerned with playwrights. They were concerned with debate over the political future of the people of the United States of America.…”