“SHUT UP,” HE EXPLAINED: Excellent Jonathan Rauch piece on campaign finance reform a.k.a. political speech regulations:

“Now it is official: The United States of America has a federal bureaucracy in charge of deciding who can say what about politicians during campaign season. We can argue, and people do, about whether this state of affairs is good or bad, better or worse than some alternative. What is inarguable is that America now has what amounts to a federal speech code, enforced with jail terms of up to five years.

“The law now circumscribes the most important of all civil rights: the right to criticize politicians.

“An exaggeration? Judge for yourself. Consider the sorts of cases the Federal Election Commission now finds itself deciding….”

more

Via Hit & Run, I think.