National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm’n · ¶25

We begin with First Amendment fundamentals. The text of the First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” The First Amendment embodies “a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Comm. v. Federal Election Comm’n, 518 U. S. 604, 629 (1996) (Colorado I) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment and dissenting in part) (quotation marks omitted).

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