Major infringement of constitutional rights
The bill may go to the Senate tomorrow morning before people have a chance to know what's happened. Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) voted for the bill, Rep. Charles Djou (R-HI), voted against it.
---
by Michael Connelly
Mr. Connelly teaches law, including constitutional law, through Education to Go, an online company that provides courses to numerous universities, including the University of Hawaii system. The author of three books and publisher of a website, he resides in Carrollton, Texas, and can be reached by email.
My first Legislative Alert that I posted on my blog on June 8th dealt with HR 5175, “The Disclose Act” that was pending in Congress. Unfortunately, this very dangerous and clearly unconstitutional piece of legislation passed the House of Representatives on June 24th by a vote of 219 to 206. Now, the only chance to defeat it is to immediately contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to vote against it. The indications are that Harry Reid plans on pushing it to the Senate floor as quickly as possible.
If this bill passes it will have a major chilling impact on businesses and independent issue oriented conservative groups that plan to be heavily involved in the upcoming elections. The law is designed to limit these groups in direct violation of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that clearly stated that these types of limitations on political speech violated the First Amendment to the Constitution.
This is not only an attempt by the Obama Administration to silence its opponents before the November election, but it is a statement by the House of Representatives and the President that they believe the Constitution is dead and that the third branch of government, the Federal Judiciary is no longer relevant and can be ignored. Please contact your Senators and urge others to do the same.
---
HPI note:
Senator Daniel Akaka's (HI-D) office: 202-224-6361 (Washington, 6 hours ahead of Hawaii); 808-522-8970 (Honolulu)
Senator Daniel Inouye's (HI-D) office: 202-224-3934 (Washington); 808-541-2542 (Honolulu)
Link:
NRA Head on The Disclose Act [NRA] (video)
