Cite as: 540 U. S. 93 (2003)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
"by preventing the use of corporate resources in furtherance of views with which some shareholders may disagree." Id., at 792-793. Among other problems, the statute was overinclusive:
"[It] would prohibit a corporation from supporting or opposing a referendum proposal even if its shareholders unanimously authorized the contribution or expenditure. . . . Acting through their power to elect the board of directors or to insist upon protective provisions in the corporation's charter, shareholders normally are presumed competent to protect their own interests. . . . [M]inority shareholders generally have access to the judicial remedy of a derivative suit to challenge corporate disbursements . . . . Assuming, arguendo, that protection of shareholders is a 'compelling' interest under the circumstances of this case, we find 'no substantially relevant correlation between the governmental interest asserted and the State's effort' to prohibit appellants from speaking." Id., at 794-795 (quoting Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479, 485 (1960)).
See also Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U. S. 209 (1977) (providing analogous protections to union members).
Austin turned its back on this holding, not because the Bellotti Court had overlooked the Government's interest in combating quid pro quo corruption, but because a new majority decided to recognize "a different type of corruption," Austin, 494 U. S., at 660, i. e., the same "corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth," ibid., found insufficient to sustain a similar prohibition just a decade earlier. Unless certain narrow exceptions apply, see Federal Election Comm'n v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Inc., 479 U. S. 238 (1986) (MCFL), the prohibition extends even to nonprofit corporations organized to promote a point of view. Aside from its disregard of precedents, the majority's ready willingness to equate corruption with all
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