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Eugene Kontorovich is a professor of law at Northwestern University Law School He was the co-author, with Alan Gura, of an amicus brief in the case for the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law and Constitutional Law Professors.
By now anyone who would be reading this will know that last week the Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment’s speech protections are weaker in the context of judicial elections than in other kinds.
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Williams – Yulee v. Florida Bar has left Court watchers and legal scholars with a bad case of whiplash. The Court held that Florida did not violate the First Amendment by enforcing its rule of judicial conduct prohibiting judicial election candidates from personally soliciting campaign contributions.
On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its opinion in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar, a case arising out of Florida decided by a five-to-four vote involving the confidence of the American public in the country’s judicial system.
They’re brewing a strange brand of strict scrutiny up at the Supreme Court these days.
The result in the Williams-Yulee case was a difficult one to predict except that it was entirely predictable that the result would be by a deeply divided Court.
Yesterday’s decision in Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar was the self-described “rare” case in which a campaign finance speech restriction survived strict scrutiny.
In itself, the Supreme Court’s decision in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar probably will have limited effects. The Court’s acceptance of state rules that prohibit personal solicitation of campaign contributions by candidates for judgeships is unlikely to enhance public confidence in the impartiality of judges much, if at all.
From the earliest days of the Republic, Americans have displayed an ambivalent attitude toward judges. On one hand, we regard the judicial branch as performing a function distinct from the political branches, calling for the exercise of judgment removed both from popular opinion and from the political-moral views of the individual judge.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar to uphold the state’s solicitation law comes as a surprise. Based on the Court’s recent rulings in several campaign finance cases, many scholars anticipated that the Court would find Florida’s solicitation law to be unconstitutional.
The blog is delighted to host an online symposium on today’s decision in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar. Our first post is a foreword to the symposium by Ronald K.L. Collins, who organized the event.