Freedom of Speech · Module 6A
Speech and Participation in Elections
Money, elections and the First Amendment. Buckley's expenditure–contribution distinction, its critics, and what Citizens United did and did not decide.
Assigned reading
Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law (7th ed. 2023) — 1328–55, 952–75.
The casebook is the assigned text for this course. This page is the map: what the Module is doing, in what order, and what goes with it.
Topics
Campaign finance as speech. The contribution / expenditure distinction. Corporate and union political speech. Aggregate limits and the definition of corruption. The right to vote: restrictions on the franchise and dilution of the vote. Why the franchise is analyzed as a fundamental right rather than as speech, and what the two bodies of doctrine have to say to each other.
Reading list
0 of 7 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited
- Opinion Buckley v. Valeo
- Opinion Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
- Opinion McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
- Opinion Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections
- Opinion Kramer v. Union Free School District
- Opinion Crawford v. Marion County Election Board
- Opinion Reynolds v. Sims
This module in Canvas
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How to read this list
A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.