hey there and welcome back to homeless history in this video we're going to look at yet another one of your required supreme court cases for the ap government curriculum namely citizens united v the federal election commission so if you're ready to get them brain gals milked with them let's get to it as always let's begin with the facts of the case now this case is all about campaign finance laws and i have a whole video going into depth on that and you can see it right over here for a more robust history but here we're going to start with the bipartisan campaign finance act or bikra passed in 2002. in addition to articulating limits for individuals contributing money to political candidates there's really just one thing you need to know about this act with respect to the citizens united case part of the bikra law made it illegal for corporations or non-profits to engage in electioneering communications for 60 days before an election or 30 days before a primary so you want to pay a butt load of money to smear a candidate fine but once we hit that 60 days before the election you got to shut your mouth now during the 2008 democratic primaries a close contest for the party nomination was heating up between hillary clinton and barack obama a conservative group called citizens united decided to make a film called hillary the movie the film was full of damning accusations against clinton and was intended to derail her bid for the presidency however by the time it was ready to be released it was already during that forbidden period in which corporations had to keep their mouth holes shut about political candidates thanks to bikram and so citizens united challenged this portion of the law and it went all the way to the supreme court so what was the constitutional principle at stake well citizens united argued that bicker's prohibition against electioneering communications by corporations was a violation of the first amendment's protection of the freedom of speech maybe you're like wait a minute a corporation isn't a person so how can it have protected speech well it's too complicated to get into here but the short story is that since the 1800s the supreme court has pretty consistently ruled that corporations are just associations of individuals and in many cases constitutional civil liberties extend to them as well so what was the decision it was decided five to four in favor of citizens united the court argued that limitations put upon corporations for running political advertisements and communications were not materially different from government censorship of speech toward individuals therefore that part of bikra was struck down now ultimately for hillary the movie it didn't really matter that much because this was decided two years after the democratic primary even so this was a victory for citizens united nonetheless okay so why does this case matter well the perennial question when it comes to campaign finance is this since money equals speech in the political arena is it fair for those with the most money to have the loudest voices in the citizens united case the supreme court essentially said yeah that's fair so now corporations and labor unions and non-profits and other organizations can spend as much money as they want provided they don't collaborate directly with the candidate on political communication right up to election day the campaign finance reform laws were put into place to put the kibash on corruption in elections but the court ruled that just because a friendly organization is spending a bunch of money on a candidate's behalf doesn't necessarily mean that the candidate owes them favors which is already illegal under other laws at the end of the day this is an issue that still ruffles feathers and is far from being decided in the minds of the american public even if it is decided in the courts okay that's what you need to know about citizens united v fec i've got videos right over here on all the other required cases if you need them if you need help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam then click right up here and grab my review packet and all your dreams will come true and finally if this video helped you and you want me to keep making them then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out