- #First amendment freedom of speech clause citation full
- #First amendment freedom of speech clause citation registration
One is that the casting of a vote, no matter how it has been parsed in doctrinal discussions, meets the ordinary and commonly understood definition of a speech act. The First Amendment is a logical locus for voting protection for several reasons. This Essay begins with the two premises underlying other scholarship-voting should be treated as a fundamental right, and it is not-and proposes that we find a source of constitutional protection for voting in the First Amendment. The commentators propose various doctrinal solutions, such as fully recognizing the right to vote as fundamental, like the right to interstate travel, or treating it as a fundamental right that is modified by a calibrated speech analysis, or locating the right within the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Many commentators have written about this voting rights dilemma, typically observing that (a) the right to vote has been described as “fundamental,” by Congress and the Supreme Court, but also that (b) the Supreme Court and other court decisions analyzing burdens on the right to vote do not give it the protection that fundamental rights ordinarily receive. The Court should change course, fully acknowledge the expressive nature of voting, and grant voting the same First Amendment protections as the money spent to influence it.
#First amendment freedom of speech clause citation registration
Burdens on voter registration and voting are not analyzed under strict First Amendment standards, and therefore the Court has allowed states excessive latitude to restrict voters’ access to the ballot box. Registering and voting, on the other hand, are given short shrift by the Court. Any limitations on such speech are subjected to strict scrutiny. The Court treats spending to influence voters in elections-by candidates, political parties, individuals, corporations, labor unions, and others, including anonymous contributors who might well be international terrorists-as free speech entitled to robust First Amendment protection against state and federal limitation.
But the current Supreme Court rarely scrutinizes voting regulations as it does other speech regulations.
This simple proposition is especially fitting in light of the broad First Amendment protection extended to the dollars spent in political campaigns to influence votes.
#First amendment freedom of speech clause citation full
It seems like an obvious proposition that a citizen registering to vote or casting a ballot is engaging in free speech, a fundamental right entitled to full protection under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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