UF expert available to talk about Supreme Court campaign finance decision

January 22, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida professor calls the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing corporations and unions to freely make independent expenditures from their general funds “a dramatic victory for freedom of speech and, in particular, for political speech which is at the core of the First Amendment.”

Clay Calvert, an attorney and the Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication, said the majority’s opinion “levels the playing field in terms of speech rights by treating corporations, unions, advocacy groups and individuals in similar fashion. The First Amendment should be neutral toward the group, entity or individual that is speaking.”

Calvert cautioned, however, that the danger is that wealthy corporations and powerful unions will dominate political discourse in the marketplace and ideas, squeezing out the voice of the common citizen.

“Equal First Amendment rights for speakers thus may lead to unequal outcomes, but corporations and unions, via lobbyists and other means, have always heavily influenced politics, and many groups have found ways around campaign finance reform laws,” he said.

Calvert formerly served as John and Ann Curley Professor of First Amendment Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also co-directed the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment.

He earned a law degree from the University of the Pacific, and both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

He can be reached at 512-906-9226 or by e-mail at ccalvert@jou.ufl.edu.