After running a puff piece on Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that celebrated his dissent in the Citizens United v. FEC case, the New York Times deserves credit for evening out its coverage with a well-crafted article on Justice Clarence Thomas that defends the ruling.
In an exchange with students from the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., Thomas explained the ruling’s connection to First Amendment freedoms at great length. The article gives great weight and space to the arguments underpinning the high court’s majority decision. Moreover, it does shy away from criticisms of the New York Times.
“I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company,” Justice Thomas is quoted as saying. “These are corporations.”
In his talk, Justice Thomas also encouraged students to go back and review the history of government activity in this area, especially the Tillman Act of 1907. It was a particularly important point that cuts to the heart of the decision and the reporter deserves credit for highlighting these comments.
“Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. “Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them.”
It is thus a mistake, the justice said, to applaud the regulation of corporate speech as “some sort of beatific action.”
The previous write up on Justice Stevens gave the court’s longest serving liberal a free pass for ruling against First Amendment freedoms that by logic newspapers would support out of self-interest. But, at the same time, Thomas goes a get a fair hearing in this latest piece without any interjections from the reporter and this should be commended.
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