btw it is facial and I think it refers to changing everything as opposed to just changing an aspect.



please allow these exerpts from Stevens dissent. These are particulary powerful and easy to understand. (A few case law citations have been removed and text has been justified)

############## denotes sections regarding Thomas Jefferson and later T Roosevelt.

(translation: Justice Stevens tears Scalia a new one)



CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM'N
(dissenting) Opinion of STEVENS, J.

1. Original Understandings
Let us start from the beginning. The Court invokes "ancient First Amendment principles," and original understandings,to defend today's ruling, yet it makes only a perfunctory attempt to ground its analysis in the principles or understandings of those who drafted and ratified the Amendment. Perhaps this is because there is not ascintilla of evidence to support the notion that anyone believed it would preclude regulatory distinctions based on the corporate form. To the extent that the Framers' views are discernible and relevant to the disposition of this case,they would appear to cut strongly against the majority'sposition.
This is not only because the Framers and their contemporaries conceived of speech more narrowly than we now think of it, see Bork, Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems, 47 Ind. L. J. 1, 22 (1971), but also because they held very different views about the nature of the First Amendment right and the role of corporations in society.
Those few corporations that existed at the founding were authorized by grant of a special legislative charter.53 Corporate sponsors would petition the legislature, and the legislature, if amenable, would issue a charter that specified the corporation's powers and purposes and "authoritatively fixed the scope and content of corporate organization,"
53Scholars have found that only a handful of business corporations were issued charters during the colonial period, and only a few hundred during all of the 18th century. See E. Dodd, American Business Corporations Until 1860, p. 197 (1954); L. Friedman, A History of AmericanLaw 188–189 (2d ed. 1985); Baldwin, American Business CorporationsBefore 1789, 8 Am. Hist. Rev. 449, 450–459 (1903).

JUSTICE SCALIA quibbles with these figures; whereas we say that "a few hundred"charters were issued to business corporations during the 18th century,he says that the number is "approximately 335." Ante, at 2 (concurring opinion). JUSTICE SCALIA also raises the more serious point that it is improper to assess these figures by today's standards, ante, at 3, though I believe he fails to substantiate his claim that "the corporation was a familiar figure in American economic life" by the century's end, ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). His formulation of that claim is also misleading, because the relevant reference point is not 1800 but the date of the First Amendment's ratification, in 1791. And at that time, the number of business charters must have been significantly smaller than 335, because the pace of chartering only began to pick up steam in the last decade of the 18th century. More than half of the century's total business charters were issued between 1796 and 1800.
.
Corporations were created, supervised, and conceptualized as quasi-public entities, "designed to serve a social function for the state."Handlin & Handlin, Origin of the American BusinessCorporation, 5 J. Econ. Hist. 1, 22 (1945). It was "assumed that [they] were legally privileged organizations that had to be closely scrutinized by the legislature because their purposes had to be made consistent with public welfare." R. Seavoy, Origins of the American Business Corporation, 1784–1855, p. 5 (1982).
The individualized charter mode of incorporation reflected the "cloud of disfavor under which corporations labored" in the early years of this Nation. 1 W. Fletcher, Cyclopedia of the Law of Corporations §2, p. 8 (rev. ed. 2006); see also Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U. S. 517, 548–549 (1933) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) (discussing fears of the "evils" of business corporations); L. Friedman,


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A History of American Law 194 (2d ed. 1985) ("The word 'soulless' constantly recurs in debates over corporations. . . . Corporations, it was feared, could concentratethe worst urges of whole groups of men"). Thomas Jefferson famously fretted that corporations would subvert the Republic.54 General incorporation statutes, and widespread acceptance of business corporations as socially useful actors, did not emerge until the 1800's. See Hansmann & Kraakman, The End of History for Corporate Law, 89 Geo. L. J. 439, 440 (2001) (hereinafter Hansmann& Kraakman) ("[A]ll general business corporation statutesappear to date from well after 1800"). ——————
54See Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Tom Logan (Nov. 12, 1816), in 12 The Works of Thomas Jefferson 42, 44 (P. Ford ed. 1905) ("I hope weshall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country").

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The Framers thus took it as a given that corporations could be comprehensively regulated in the service of the public welfare. Unlike our colleagues, they had little trouble distinguishing corporations from human beings,and when they constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind.55 While individuals might join together to exercise their speech rights, business corporations, at least, were plainly not seen as facilitating such associational or expressive ends. Even "the notion that business corporations could invoke the First Amendment would probably have been quite a novelty,"given that "at the time, the legitimacy of every corporate activity was thought to rest entirely in a concession of the sovereign." Shelledy, Autonomy, Debate, and Corporate Speech, 18 Hastings Const. L. Q. 541, 578 (1991); cf. Trus-tees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518, 636
—————— 55In normal usage then, as now, the term "speech" referred to oral communications by individuals. See, e.g., 2 S. Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language 1853–1854 (4th ed. 1773) (reprinted 1978) (listing as primary definition of "speech": "The power of articulateutterance; the power of expressing thoughts by vocal words"); 2 N.Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) (reprinted 1970) (listing as primary definition of "speech": "The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words, as in human beings; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds. Speech was given to man by his Creator for the noblest purposes"). Indeed, it has been "claimed that the notion of institutional speech . . . did not exist in post revolutionary America." Fagundes, State Actors as First AmendmentSpeakers, 100 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1637, 1654 (2006); see also Bezanson, Institutional Speech, 80 Iowa L. Rev. 735, 775 (1995) ("In the intellectual heritage of the eighteenth century, the idea that free speech was individual and personal was deeply rooted and clearly manifest in the writings of Locke, Milton, and others on whom the framers of theConstitution and the Bill of Rights drew"). Given that corporations were conceived of as artificial entities and do not have the technical capacity to "speak," the burden of establishing that the Framers andratifiers understood "the freedom of speech" to encompass corporatespeech is, I believe, far heavier than the majority acknowledges.
38

(1819) (Marshall, C. J.) ("A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law. Being the mere creature of law, it possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it"); Eule, Promoting Speaker Diversity: Austin and Metro Broadcasting, 1990 S. Ct. Rev. 105, 129("The framers of the First Amendment could scarcely haveanticipated its application to the corporation form. That, of course, ought not to be dispositive. What is compelling, however, is an understanding of who was supposed to bethe beneficiary of the free speech guaranty—the individual"). In light of these background practices and understandings, it seems to me implausible that the Framersbelieved "the freedom of speech" would extend equally toall corporate speakers, much less that it would precludelegislatures from taking limited measures to guard against corporate capture of elections.
The Court observes that the Framers drew on diverse intellectual sources, communicated through newspapers, and aimed to provide greater freedom of speech than had existed in England. Ante, at 37. From these (accurate)observations, the Court concludes that "[t]he First Amendment was certainly not understood to condone the suppression of political speech in society's most salientmedia." Ibid. This conclusion is far from certain, given that many historians believe the Framers were focused onprior restraints on publication and did not understand theFirst Amendment to "prevent the subsequent punishment of such [publications] as may be deemed contrary to the public welfare." Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U. S. 697, 714 (1931). Yet, even if the majority's conclusionwere correct, it would tell us only that the First Amendment was understood to protect political speech in certain media. It would tell us little about whether the Amendment was understood to protect general treasury electioneering expenditures by corporations, and to what extent.

As a matter of original expectations, then, it seems absurd to think that the First Amendment prohibits legislatures from taking into account the corporate identity of asponsor of electoral advocacy. As a matter of originalmeaning, it likewise seems baseless—unless one evaluates the First Amendment's "principles," ante, at 1, 48, or its "purpose," ante, at 5 (opinion of ROBERTS, C. J.), at such a high level of generality that the historical understandingsof the Amendment cease to be a meaningful constraint onthe judicial task. This case sheds a revelatory light on theassumption of some that an impartial judge's application of an originalist methodology is likely to yield more determinate answers, or to play a more decisive role in thedecisional process, than his or her views about sound policy.
JUSTICE SCALIA criticizes the foregoing discussion for failing to adduce statements from the founding era showing that corporations were understood to be excluded from the First Amendment's free speech guarantee. Ante, at 1– 2, 9. Of course, JUSTICE SCALIA adduces no statements to suggest the contrary proposition, or even to suggest thatthe contrary proposition better reflects the kind of right that the drafters and ratifiers of the Free Speech Clausethought they were enshrining. Although JUSTICE SCALIA makes a perfectly sensible argument that an individual's right to speak entails a right to speak with others for a common cause, cf. MCFL, 479 U. S. 238, he does not explain why those two rights must be precisely identical, or why that principle applies to electioneering by corporations that serve no "common cause." Ante, at 8. Nothingin his account dislodges my basic point that members of the founding generation held a cautious view of corporatepower and a narrow view of corporate rights (not that they"despised" corporations, ante, at 2), and that they conceptualized speech in individualistic terms. If no prominent Framer bothered to articulate that corporate speech woul
have lesser status than individual speech, that may wellbe because the contrary proposition—if not also the very notion of "corporate speech"—was inconceivable.56
JUSTICE SCALIA also emphasizes the unqualified natureof the First Amendment text. Ante, at 2, 8. Yet he would seemingly read out the Free Press Clause: How else could he claim that my purported views on newspapers must track my views on corporations generally? Ante, at 6.57 Like virtually all modern lawyers, JUSTICE SCALIA presumably believes that the First Amendment restricts theExecutive, even though its language refers to Congressalone. In any event, the text only leads us back to the questions who or what is guaranteed "the freedom of speech," and, just as critically, what that freedom consists of and under what circumstances it may be limited. JUSTICE SCALIA appears to believe that because corporations are created and utilized by individuals, it follows (as
—————— 56Postratification practice bolsters the conclusion that the First Amendment, "as originally understood," ante, at 37, did not give corporations political speech rights on a par with the rights of individuals. Well into the modern era of general incorporation statutes, "the common law was generally interpreted as prohibiting corporate political participation," First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U. S. 765, 819 (1978) (White, J., dissenting), and this Court did not recognize anyFirst Amendment protections for corporations until the middle part ofthe 20th century, see ante, at 25–26 (listing cases). 57In fact, the Free Press Clause might be turned against JUSTICE SCALIA, for two reasons. First, we learn from it that the drafters of the First Amendment did draw distinctions—explicit distinctions—betweentypes of "speakers," or speech outlets or forms. Second, the Court's strongest historical evidence all relates to the Framers' views on the press, see ante, at 37–38; ante, at 4–6 (SCALIA, J., concurring), yet while the Court tries to sweep this evidence into the Free Speech Clause, the Free Press Clause provides a more natural textual home. The text and history highlighted by our colleagues suggests why one type of corporation, those that are part of the press, might be able to claim special First Amendment status, and therefore why some kinds of "identity"based distinctions might be permissible after all. Once one accepts that much, the intellectual edifice of the majority opinion crumbles.
Cite as: 558 U. S. ____ (2010) 41

night the day that their electioneering must be equally protected by the First Amendment and equally immunized from expenditure limits. See ante, at 7–8. That conclusion certainly does not follow as a logical matter, and JUSTICE SCALIA fails to explain why the original public meaning leads it to follow as a matter of interpretation.
The truth is we cannot be certain how a law such as BCRA §203 meshes with the original meaning of the First Amendment.58 I have given several reasons why I believe the Constitution would have been understood then, and ought to be understood now, to permit reasonable restrictions on corporate electioneering, and I will give many more reasons in the pages to come. The Court enlists the Framers in its defense without seriously grappling with their understandings of corporations or the free speech right, or with the republican principles that underlay those understandings.


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The Court's central argument is that laws such as §203 have "'deprived [the electorate] of information, knowledge and opinion vital to its function,'" ante, at 38 (quoting CIO, 335 U. S., at 144 (Rutledge, J., concurring in judgment)), and this, in turn, "interferes with the 'open marketplace' of ideas protected by the FirstAmendment," ante, at 38 (quoting New York State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres, 552 U. S. 196, 208 (2008)).
There are many flaws in this argument. If the overriding concern depends on the interests of the audience, surely the public's perception of the value of corporate speech should be given important weight. That perception today is the same as it was a century ago when Theodore Roosevelt delivered the speeches to Congress that, in time,led to the limited prohibition on corporate campaign expenditures that is overruled today. See WRTL, 551 U. S., at 509–510 (Souter, J., dissenting) (summarizing President —————— owners may speak in their own names, rather than the business', ifthey wish to evade §203 altogether. Nonprofit corporations that wantto make unrestricted electioneering expenditures may do so if they refuse donations from businesses and unions and permit members todisassociate without economic penalty. See MCFL, 479 U. S. 238, 264 (1986). Making it plain that their decision is not motivated by a concern about BCRA's coverage of nonprofits that have ideological missions but lack MCFL status, our colleagues refuse to apply the Snowe-Jeffords Amendment or the lower courts' de minimis exception to MCFL.
Roosevelt's remarks... The distinctive threat to democratic integrity posed by corporate domination of politics wasrecognized at "the inception of the republic" and "has been a persistent theme in American political life" ever since. Regan 302. It is only certain Members of this Court, not the listeners themselves, who have agitated for more corporate electioneering.
Austin recognized that there are substantial reasons why a legislature might conclude that unregulated generaltreasury expenditures will give corporations "unfair influence" in the electoral process, 494 U. S., at 660, and distort public debate in ways that undermine rather than advance the interests of listeners. The legal structure of corporations allows them to amass and deploy financialresources on a scale few natural persons can match. The structure of a business corporation, furthermore, draws a line between the corporation's economic interests and thepolitical preferences of the individuals associated with thecorporation; the corporation must engage the electoral process with the aim "to enhance the profitability of thecompany, no matter how persuasive the arguments for abroader or conflicting set of priorities," Brief for American Independent Business Alliance as Amicus Curiae 11; see also ALI, Principles of Corporate Governance: Analysisand Recommendations §2.01(a), p. 55 (1992) ("[A] corporation . . . should have as its objective the conduct of business activities with a view to enhancing corporate profitand shareholder gain"). In a state election such as the one at issue in Austin, the interests of nonresident corporations may be fundamentally adverse to the interests oflocal voters. Consequently, when corporations grab up the prime broadcasting slots on the eve of an election, they can flood the market with advocacy that bears "little or no correlation" to the ideas of natural persons or to any broader notion of the public good,