Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U.S. 377, 40 (2000)

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416

NIXON v. SHRINK MISSOURI GOVERNMENT PAC

Thomas, J., dissenting

cused and candidate driven. Citizens recognize that the best advocate for a candidate (and the policy positions he supports) tends to be the candidate himself. And candidate organizations also offer other advantages to citizens wishing to partake in political expression. Campaign organizations offer a ready-built, convenient means of communicating for donors wishing to support and amplify political messages. Furthermore, the leader of the organization—the candidate—has a strong self-interest in efficiently expending funds in a manner that maximizes the power of the messages the contributor seeks to disseminate. Individual citizens understandably realize that they "may add more to political

would-be payors remained free to use their money in other ways. Id., at 418. We disagreed and held that "[t]he refusal to permit appellees to pay petition circulators restricts political expression" by "limit[ing] the number of voices who will convey appellees' message and the hours they can speak and, therefore, limits the size of the audience they can reach." Id., at 422-423. In short, the Court held that the First Amendment protects the right to pay others to help get a message out. In other cases, this Court extended such protection, holding that the First Amendment prohibits laws that do not ban, but instead only regulate, the terms upon which so-called mercenaries and gladiators are retained. See Riley v. National Federation of Blind of N. C., Inc., 487 U. S. 781 (1988) (holding that the First Amendment prohibits state restriction on the amount a charity may pay a professional fundraiser); Secretary of State of Md. v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U. S. 947 (1984) (same). Cf. also, e. g., Teachers v. Hudson, 475 U. S. 292 (1986) (opinion of the Court by Stevens, J.) (holding that the First Amendment restrains government-compelled exactions of money); Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U. S. 209 (1977) (same). In these cases, the Court did not resort to Justice Stevens' assertion that money "is not speech" to dismiss challenges to monetary regulations. Instead, the Court properly examined the impact of the regulations on free expression. See also, e. g., Federal Election Comm'n v. National Conservative Political Action Comm., 470 U. S. 480 (1985) (First Amendment protects political committee's expenditures of money); Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing v. Berkeley, 454 U. S. 290 (1981) (First Amendment protects monetary contributions to political committee); First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U. S. 765, 769 (1978) (First Amendment protects "spend[ing] money to publicize [political] views").

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