RULING SUPPORTS FREE SPEECH

Once again a federal appeals court one level shy of the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the reformers' efforts to limit speech in our political campaigns. This time it was the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down that portion of a Missouri law placing limits on the amounts that parties can give to candidates to spend in their campaigns.

In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court ruled that Missouri's statutory limits on these donations violate the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.

As we have repeatedly pointed out on this page, speech is the currency of our democracy, its very lifeblood. Contribution limits place lids on the amount of speech that can be heard by voters hungry for facts and fair argument. Limit that speech, as the reformers are always trying to do, and you limit debate and the flow of information to the voting public.

Few voices in our public life today are more hypocritical than the self-appointed guardians of so-called "clean" campaigns in the editorial boards of our nation's liberal newspapers. These liberal voices are constantly decrying money in politics, demanding that ever-more Draconian donation limits be enacted.

We have a question for them: How would they react if self-appointed reformers came along demanding that there be a ceiling on how much these newspapers can spend on gathering, reporting and disseminating news and opinion for their readers? They would scream about the First Amendment to the high heavens.

But these same people want to limit political speech, which costs money including buying ads in those same newspapers to communicate. Their favored reform would, coincidentally, greatly increase the power of these remaining media voices, once those of competing candidates were effectively silenced.

We need more, not less speech, in our campaigns for high office. The answer to money in politics is full disclosure and letting the people decide. Technology permits virtual immediate disclosure of contributions as they are received through the Internet. This immediate disclosure should be enacted at both the state and federal levels, where the people can scrutinize who is receiving what from whom and make up their own minds.

We used to call it freedom. Beware anyone who wants to restrict your right to communicate your views in a political campaign.