Interview with Ron Collins:

Question: As you know, this term the Court heard yet another campaign finance case, McCutcheon v. FEC. I gather you favor a constitutional amendment to curb what you see as the Court’s constitutional excesses in this area. Can you say a few words about why you think it would be wise to amend the First Amendment? 

Answer: Actually, although I did assist my former student Adam Schiff (D. Cal.) in drafting a proposed constitutional amendment that I thought would be better than the alternatives floating around at the time, and although at one point I thought some such amendment would be wise to consider seriously, I haven’t joined forces with those who currently urge vigorous pursuit of the amendment path, which I think probably represents a political dead end. I think that there’s both more promise and less danger in pushing for greater transparency and disclosure of the sort the Court held permissible in Citizens United, for reforms in the laws determining how and when corporations can spend their shareholders’ money on speech, and for possible ways to get around the Court’s post-Citizens United decision striking down the calibrated public finance mechanism at issue in Arizona v. Bennett (2011).