WEBVTT

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- I represented Mitch McConnell.

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Not my favorite public servant.

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- So let me turn
first to Floyd Abrams.

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- [Floyd] But I agreed
with his views on this.

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- Thank you, Senator.

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I'm delighted to be here in
rather unaccustomed company.

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(politician chuckles)

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It's the oldest of cliches

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that politics makes
strange bedfellows.

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It is not at all
strange that people

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who disagree politically
can come together

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in defending the
First Amendment.

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- Right away, we're in the area

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where there is the absolute
most First Amendment protection.

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Nothing's more important than
speech about who to vote for,

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and maybe nothing, nothing,
nothing is more important

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than who to vote
for for President.

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That was an easy case.

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That must be one

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in which the First
Amendment carries the day.

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- I actually was at the
Citizens United Argument.

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I was a young lawyer

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in the Obama White
House Counsel's Office,

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and the White House would
often send lawyers to the court

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for kind of big,
significant arguments.

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Citizens United was initially
a pretty narrow case.

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It's actually not really
about a ban on anything,

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but about just like a limitation

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on when you could spend money
and how you could spend money.

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But then the court, when
everyone was expecting

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the case to be decided
in June of 2009,

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the court conspicuously set
the case for re-argument

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and reframing in much,
much broader terms.

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- [Chief Justice] Mr. Abrams.

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- [Floyd] Mr. Chief Justice,
and may it please the court.

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The first case-

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- He didn't go
small. He went big.

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He said, "This is
an opportunity.

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You could decide this
case on narrow grounds."

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There's good
arguments to be made

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that the court
should have decided

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on the narrow
grounds, but justices,

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you should please make a
big, bold statement saying

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that "the First Amendment
protects independent spending

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by corporations in
candidate elections."

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(epic music)