Retired Justice John Paul Stevens: Supreme Court may regret Citizens United ruling

By Kimberly Atkins Dolan Media Newswires BOSTON, MA--Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said his former colleagues may be ruing the day the Citizens United v. FEC decision was handed down. In a speech last night at the University of Arkansas, Stevens said the Supreme Court will soon have to decide whether the decision, which held that the right of corporations, unions and other groups to make unlimited super PAC contributions in election campaigns is protected by the First Amendment, also applies to foreign groups including terrorist organizations. Stevens said based on the words "not true" famously uttered by Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. in response to President Barack Obama's criticism of the Citizens United decision at the 2010 State of the Union address, "there will not be five votes" to extend Citizens United to foreign entities. "The court must then explain its abandonment of, or at least qualify reliance upon, the proposition that the identity of the speaker is an impermissible basis for regulating campaign speech," Stevens said, according to CNN's Bill Mears. "It will be necessary to explain why the First Amendment provides greater protection for some nonvoters than that of other nonvoters. Entire contents copyrighted © 2012 by The Dolan Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly forbidden. Published: Thu, Jun 14, 2012