On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 6:38 AM, Anthony <wikim...@inbox.org> wrote: >> I'm not speaking for WMF, but I don't see the connection here. > > The connection is free speech.
Analytically, however, the issue raised by Citizens United is not simply an issue of free speech. It centers on the precise question of what role corporate expenditures can play in elections. It does not address the question of whether corporations can engage in political activity. >> Wikimedia Foundation, as a corporation, is profoundly regulated in >> what it can and cannot do politically > > What regulations are you referring to? Corporations can't *deduct* > certain political expenditures. But what are the profound regulations > on what it can do politically? See, e.g., http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/limits-political-campaigning-501c3-nonprofits-29982.html and http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicl03.pdf. > WMF is engaging in lobbying, a form of political speech. In the > Citizens United decision, "the Court held that the First Amendment > prohibited the government from restricting independent political > expenditures by corporations and unions". > > The connection is quite obvious. Not merely obvious but "quite obvious," eh? Well, in the United States cases like Citizens United and its predecessors center precisely on election campaigns (including the ways money can be spent on "issue campaigning" aimed at influencing the outcome of elections of candidates for public office). I'm unaware of the Wikimedia Foundation's attempting to influence an election. I'm also unaware of any how Citizens United applies even remotely the subject matter of this thread, which I had understood to center on Russian legislation, not (for example) on a Russian election. But perhaps you're making a one of those "obvious" (excuse me, I mean "quite obvious") connections that is too subtle for me to follow. Speaking only for myself, I remain cheered by the Russian-language Wikimedians' activism. --Mike _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
