Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf
Page Number: 56.0

Cite as:  572 U. S. ____ (2014) 

5 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

protects  political  speech.    Speech  does  not  exist  in  a  vac- 
uum.  Rather,  political  communication  seeks  to  secure
government action.  A politically oriented “marketplace of 
ideas”  seeks  to  form  a  public  opinion  that  can  and  will 
influence elected representatives. 

This is not a new idea.  Eighty-seven years ago, Justice
Brandeis  wrote  that  the  First  Amendment’s  protection  of
speech was “essential to effective democracy.”  Whitney v. 
California, 274 U. S. 357, 377 (1927) (concurring opinion). 
Chief  Justice  Hughes  reiterated  the  same  idea  shortly 
thereafter:  “A  fundamental  principle  of  our  constitutional 
system”  is  the  “maintenance  of  the  opportunity  for  free 
political  discussion  to  the  end  that  government  may  be 
responsive  to  the  will  of  the  people.”    Stromberg  v.  Cali-
fornia,  283  U. S.  359,  369  (1931)  (emphasis  added).    In 
Citizens  United,  the  Court  stated  that  “[s]peech  is  an
essential  mechanism  of  democracy,  for  it  is  the  means  to 
hold officials accountable to the people.”  558 U. S., at 339 
(emphasis added).

The  Framers  had  good  reason  to  emphasize  this  same 
connection  between  political  speech  and  governmental
action.  An  influential  18th-century  continental  philoso­
pher  had  argued  that  in  a  representative  democracy,  the 
people  lose  control  of  their  representatives  between  elec­
tions, during which interim periods they were “in chains.” 
J.  Rousseau,  An  Inquiry  Into  the  Nature  of  the  Social
Contract 265–266 (transl. 1791).

The Framers responded to this criticism both by requir­
ing  frequent  elections  to  federal  office,  and  by  enacting  a 
First  Amendment  that  would  facilitate  a  “chain  of  com­
munication  between  the  people,  and  those,  to  whom  they 
have committed the exercise of the powers of government.”
J. Wilson, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United 
States  of  America  30–31  (1792).  This  “chain”  would 
establish  the  necessary  “communion  of  interests  and 
sympathy  of  sentiments”  between  the  people  and  their