April 30, 2014 Senate Rules Committee Holds Hearing on Campaign Finance, Page 2, Justice John Paul Stevens

Senate Rules Committee Holds Hearing on Campaign Finance ...2 of 4 >

April 30, 2014 - The appearance of a former U.S. Supreme Court justice before a congressional hearing is a very rare occurrence. Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010 at age 90, declared that "while money is used to finance speech, money is not speech." Stevens described the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo "that denies Congress the power to impose limitations on campaign expenditures" as "the central error in the Court's campaign finance jurisprudence." He proposed a constitutional amendment stating simply:

"Neither the First Amendment nor any provision of this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit the Congress or any state from imposing reasonable limits on the amount of money that candidates for public office, or their supporters, may spend in election campaigns."

Stevens also noted that, "[A]ll elected officials would lead happier lives and be better able to perform their public responsibilities if they did not have to spend so much time raising money."

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