First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
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First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765 (1978), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that corporations had a First Amendment right to make contributions in order to attempt to influence political processes. In his opinion, Justice Lewis Powell ruled that a Massachusetts criminal statute prohibiting the expenditure of corporate funds "for the purpose of ... influencing or affecting" voters' opinions infringed on corporations' "protected speech in a manner unjustified by a compelling state interest."
[edit] External links
- Text of decision at findlaw.com
- Justice Rehnquist's dissent of above decision at reclaimdemocracy.org
- ReclaimDemocracy.org also has a large library of information on the topic of corporations and ballot questions (they oppose corporations being granted political "free speech").
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