Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 523.0

362  CITIZENS  UNITED  v.  FEDERAL  ELECTION  COMM’N 

Opinion of the Court 

abuse that cannot be corrected by shareholders “through the 
procedures  of  corporate  democracy.”  Bellotti,  435  U. S.,  at 
794; see ibid., n. 34.  

Those  reasons  are  sufﬁcient  to  reject  this  shareholder-
protection interest; and, moreover, the statute is both under-
inclusive and overinclusive.  As to the ﬁrst, if Congress had 
been seeking to protect dissenting shareholders, it would not 
have  banned  corporate  speech  in  only  certain  media  within 
30 or 60 days before an election.  A dissenting shareholder’s 
interests would be implicated by speech in any media at any 
time.  As to the second, the statute is overinclusive because 
it  covers  all  corporations,  including  nonproﬁt  corporations 
and  for-proﬁt  corporations  with  only  single  shareholders. 
As to other corporations, the remedy is not to restrict speech 
but  to  consider  and  explore  other  regulatory  mechanisms. 
The  regulatory  mechanism  here,  based  on  speech,  contra­
venes the First Amendment. 

4 

We  need  not  reach  the  question  whether  the  Government 
has a compelling interest in preventing foreign individuals or 
associations  from  inﬂuencing  our  Nation’s  political  process. 
Cf.  2  U. S. C.  § 441e  (contribution  and  expenditure  ban  ap­
plied  to  “foreign  national[s]”).  Section  441b  is  not  limited 
to  corporations  or  associations  that  were  created  in  foreign 
countries  or  funded  predominantly  by  foreign  shareholders. 
Section  441b  therefore  would  be  overbroad  even  if  we  as­
sumed, arguendo, that the Government  has a compelling in­
terest in limiting foreign inﬂuence over our political process. 
See Broadrick, 413 U. S., at 615. 

C 

Our precedent is to be respected unless the most convinc­
ing of reasons demonstrates that adherence to it puts us on a 
course that is sure error.  “Beyond workability, the relevant 
factors in deciding whether to adhere to the principle of stare