Posted on 04/30/2007 7:06:04 AM PDT by rellimpank
Campaign finance laws are increasingly becoming a tool to suppress political speech, and the courts are finally waking up to the danger. Last week a unanimous Washington state Supreme Court struck down an outrageous interpretation of a law that had been used to classify the antitax comments of two Seattle talk-radio hosts as "campaign contributions" subject to regulation--that is, suppression--by local prosecutors and officials who disagreed.
Washington's highest court struck down a decision by Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham, who in 2005 ordered KVI radio hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur had to place a monetary value on "campaign contributions" they made when they argued in favor of Initiative 912, a ballot measure to repeal a 9.5-cent-a-gallon increase in the state's gasoline tax. The antitax measure ultimately lost by 6% of the vote, in part because its opponents outspent its supporters by 20 to
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Why is it that conservatives are the only ones who support free speech anymore? Why are liberals such fascists?
Wickham is a dickhead, he used to preside over no-fault divorce cases in Thurston County, WA some years ago. A rubber-stamp job for a knee jerk liberal, he’s out of his depth in a full Superior Court judgeship.
ping
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