Terrye, depends on whether or not the Poli-sci professor bothers to study the Federalist Papers and other writings of the founder. Say what you want about Will, he did the work, and has maintained a strong admiration for Madison ever since. I think it’s the only thing that keeps him remotely on an even keel in his present environment.

The founders were pretty darn clear that the *purpose* of the first admendment was to protect *political* speech. When you say who can spend what to advertise their views, you curb political speech. So we come this silly stage where the popular view is that the first admendment protects “art”, but not campaign contributions. Exactly backwards. Last I checked, the first admendment was a rather bedrock piece of our Constitution–and the founders were clear on why it was there.

P.S. Madison assumed that people would be small and petty. It’s central to his famous dicussion of factions. His cure, well explained to his fellow founders, and presumably supported since they signed on, was *more* speech, not curbed speech.