Justice John Paul Stevens recently dissented from the majority opinion in Randall v. Sorrell, the case involving campaign finance restrictions imposed by Vermont. Stevens has long argued that money is not speech, and thus restrictions on money cannot raise First Amendment issues.

Robert Bauer offers a devastating critique of Stevens’ opinion. Bauer justly says Stevens’ dissent will be “cited, for years to come, as a prime example of carelessness, close in nature to fecklessness, in treating the First Amendment issues raised by campaign finance regulation.” Bauer’s blog, his website, and his book, More Soft Money Hard Law, are essential reading for anyone who care about free speech or the future of American politics.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” It’s a pity a long-serving Supreme Court justice thinks government gaining ground in free speech is a good thing and even worse that he projects his own statist sympathies onto the Founders, who were nothing if not defenders of liberty.