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Thomas, J., dissenting
"speech," such as making false defamatory statements, filing lawsuits, dancing nude, exhibiting drive-in movies with nudity, burning flags, and wearing military uniforms.1 Not surprisingly, the Courts of Appeals have followed our lead and concluded that the First Amendment protects, for example, begging, shouting obscenities, erecting tables on a sidewalk, and refusing to wear a necktie.2 In light of the many cases of this sort, today's decision is a most curious anomaly. Whatever the proper status of such activities under the First Amendment, I am confident that they are less integral to the functioning of our Republic than campaign contributions. Yet the majority today, rather than going out of its way to protect political speech, goes out of its way to avoid protecting it. As I explain below, contributions to political campaigns generate essential political speech. And contribution caps, which place a direct and substantial limit on core speech, should be met with the utmost skepticism and should receive the strictest scrutiny.
II
At bottom, the majority's refusal to apply strict scrutiny to contribution limits rests upon Buckley's discounting of the First Amendment interests at stake. The analytic foundation of Buckley, however, was tenuous from the very beginning and has only continued to erode in the intervening years. What remains of Buckley fails to provide an adequate justification for limiting individual contributions to political candidates.
1 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254 (1964); NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415 (1963); Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U. S. 560 (1991) (plurality opinion); Erznoznik v. Jacksonville, 422 U. S. 205 (1975); United States v. Eichman, 496 U. S. 310 (1990); Schacht v. United States, 398 U. S. 58 (1970).
2 Loper v. New York City Police Dept., 999 F. 2d 699 (CA2 1993); Sandul v. Larion, 119 F. 3d 1250 (CA6 1997); One World One Family Now v. Miami Beach, 175 F. 3d 1282 (CA11 1999); East Hartford Education Assoc. v. Board of Ed. of East Hartford, 562 F. 2d 838 (CA2 1977).
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