of the federal government , which was enforcing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act -LRB- known more broadly as McCain-Feingold -RRB- , this piece of political speech was banned from television . iReporter : Supreme Court ends real democracy Let 's boil it down to the essential words : Political documentary , banned , government . You do n't have to be a First Amendment purist to intuit that political speech was , if anything , the most urgent subcategory covered by the First Amendment 's `` Congress shall pass no law '' restrictions . And you do n't have to be a Hillary-hater to imagine the shoe on the other foot . What if MoveOn.org 's 501 -LRB- c -RRB- -LRB- 4 -RRB- , Campaign to Defend America , had been blocked by George W. Bush 's Federal Elections Commission from broadcasting `` McCain : The Movie '' ? Would n't that stink , too ? As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion , `` The law before us is an outright ban , backed by criminal sanctions . Section 441b makes it a felony for all corporations -- including nonprofit advocacy corporations -- either to expressly advocate
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- For everyone licking their wounds after Thursday 's landmark 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission , worried that the evil corporations are now poised to ruin American democracy once and for all , in the bogus name of free speech , here 's a word of potential hope : I used to be one of you , too , and today I 'm happy as a clam . Maybe you can be too , eventually . Here 's why : Free speech really does mean free speech , and the laws that the `` Citizens '' ruling overturned directly and heinously restricted the stuff . Forget for the moment the broad characterization of the ruling -- such as The New York Times claim that it `` sweep -LSB- s -RSB- aside a century-old understanding '' -- and drill down to the individual case in question . Citizens United , a conservative 501 -LRB- c -RRB- -LRB- 4 -RRB- nonprofit that has funded a dozen political documentaries over the years , produced a critical documentary about Hillary Clinton in 2008 entitled `` Hillary : The Movie . '' By a decision