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First Amendment Under Sustained Attack

Two further serious attacks have been made on First Amendment rights. The ongoing attempts to limit this most fundamental American freedom are serious, substantial, and persistent.

In a stunning report first reported by the New York Post, The New York State Board of Elections has enacted blatantly unconstitutional “emergency regulations” that they threaten to make permanent within a month. The new measures regulate spending by any citizen or group that voices its opinion on any issue.  Failure to comply could produce penalties.

If a citizen, concerned about a particular issue, merely prints out and distributes a flyer to 500 or more people, in which he or she encourages the passage or defeat of any ballot proposal or candidate, they must first comply with the bureaucratic procedures of the Board. The same applies to any broadcast or published statement.

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Legislative measures such as these, combined with the increasingly restrictive measures enacted by numerous boards of elections, campaign finance authorities and the like are a direct threat to free speech. They frequently arise in the context of “progressive-” or “liberal-”  dominated agencies seeking to limit the influence or electoral chances of more centrist or conservative groups.

These and similar attempts must be seen in the context of attempts by two prominent Democrat senators, Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) and Charles Schumer (D-New York), who proposed a measure that would limit free speech protections as they pertain to campaign donations. The proposed legislation gained 43 Senate supporters—all Democrats. At a Senate Rules Committee hearing earlier this year, Schumer stated that “”The First Amendment is sacred, but the First Amendment is not absolute. By making it absolute, you make it less sacred to most Americans.”