Shhhhhh

Today, I give the 4th Amendment a break, and focus on the 1st. This post from Jacob Sullum over at Reason.com kicks off the 60-day blackout period for electioneering communications. This is part of the campaign to "clean up elections." Like most of what comes out of Congress and the White House, all it really does is tangentially address the issue (at best), while taking away a huge chunk of our rights, all the while missing the meat of the issue. Personally, I think you would get a much bigger bang (meaning closer elections with more turn-over if you got rid of gerrymandering - a politician is much less likely to be on the take if they know that people are watching and that they're not guaranteed re-election - but hey, suppressing free speech while not getting closer elections or more turn-over is much more fun). Isn't it intersting that the Feds tend to "solve" our problems by taking away our power and consolidating theirs (think injury award caps).

Anyway, dumb law. He uses the Wisconsin Right to Life group as his example and does a nice job with it.

Also worth noting, those screaming pro-abortion left wing whackos the ACLU supports the Wisconsin Right to Life group in their petition for an allowance. His synopsis of the ACLU's point does a great job of pointing out how the law of unintended consequences works.

Finally, I don't like the Supreme Courts reason for upholding the law. It's a negative burden of proof. You have to prove why your ad is ok rather than the state having to show why it's not. Huge, huge difference between the two, and the court should know that.