What is free speech? And does it apply to corporations looking to support federal campaigns? As decided in the controversial Citizens United ruling, the Supreme Court determined that corporations have the same rights as people and can spend as much as they want in federal campaigns. At the same time, it helped non-profits get in the political game. Learners consider these issues by listening to journalists, politicians, and attorneys discuss the ruling. 

Concepts

american history, elections, presidential elections, presidential campaigns, hillary clinton, the first amendment, supreme court cases, the supreme court

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Offer clips and invite pupils to research other First Amendment cases
• Develop a discussion based on the videos to examine the role of money in federal elections

Classroom Considerations

• Teachers must create a free C-SPAN Classroom account or use the following login credentials: Username: students, Password: C-SPANCLASSROOM to view the resource
  

Pros

• Videos do a good job of simplifying a complex case
• Clips are balanced in perspective

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.9-10.1 RH.9-10.4 RH.9-10.6 RH.9-10.10 RH.11-12.1 RH.11-12.4 RH.11-12.6 RH.11-12.10