Symposium: Yes, it can hurt just to ask

[Draggingtree]

Scotus: Symposium: Yes, it can hurt just to ask

By Robert D. Durham on May 4, 2015 at 1:18 pm

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Williams – Yulee v. Florida Bar has left Court watchers and legal scholars with a bad case of whiplash. The Court held that Florida did not violate the First Amendment by enforcing its rule of judicial conduct prohibiting judicial election candidates from personally soliciting campaign contributions. Let’s explore why Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion for the majority has the legal cognoscenti reaching for their ice bags.

For generations, the Court has not hesitated to wield the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and other constitutional provisions, to protect citizens’ right to cast an effective, undiluted vote at the polls and to speak about matters of public concern around elections without the fear that entrenched political majorities may stifle disfavored viewpoints through legislative and administrative schemes.