First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti

E425635

First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded First Amendment protections by recognizing corporations’ rights to spend money to influence ballot initiatives.

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First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti canonical 2

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Predicate Object
instanceOf United States Supreme Court case
landmark First Amendment case
areaOfLaw constitutional law
corporate law
election law
arguedDate 1977-11-09
citation 435 U.S. 765
55 L. Ed. 2d 707
98 S. Ct. 1407
concurrenceBy Potter Stewart
Warren E. Burger
constitutionalProvisionAppliedToStatesBy Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
constitutionalProvisionInterpreted First Amendment to the United States Constitution
country United States
court Supreme Court of the United States
decisionDate 1978-04-26
dissentBy Byron R. White
Thurgood Marshall
William H. Rehnquist
William J. Brennan Jr.
docketNumber 76-1172
holding Corporations have a First Amendment right to attempt to influence the outcome of ballot initiatives through expenditures for political speech.
The First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting corporate independent expenditures related to ballot initiatives based on the corporate identity of the speaker.
impact expanded First Amendment protections for corporate political speech
influenced later campaign finance jurisprudence
joinedMajority Harry A. Blackmun
Potter Stewart
Warren E. Burger
William H. Rehnquist (in part and dissenting in part)
jurisdiction United States
languageOfOpinion English
legalIssue First Amendment to the United States Constitution
campaign finance regulation
corporate political speech
freedom of speech
majorityOpinionBy Lewis F. Powell Jr.
originatingJurisdiction Massachusetts
petitioner First National Bank of Boston
linked to: First National Bank
relatedCase Buckley v. Valeo
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
respondent Francis X. Bellotti
respondentOffice Attorney General of Massachusetts
result Massachusetts statute declared unconstitutional as applied to corporate expenditures on ballot questions.
stateLawChallenged Massachusetts statute restricting corporate spending on ballot initiatives
subjectMatter corporate expenditures in ballot measure campaigns
state regulation of corporate political activity
yearDecided 1978

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Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court hasNotableCase First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce relatedCase First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti