Summary
In December 2007, Citizens United asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for an injunction that would prevent the Federal Election Commission from applying the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) to the film Hillary: The Movie. Citizens United made the movie to inform people why it believed Senator Hillary Clinton was not fit for president, but the BCRA prevented corporations from funding “electioneering communications.”
The district court denied Citizens United’s request for an injunction, ruling that the BCRA was applied constitutionally because the movie amounted to advocacy against a specific candidate. It relied on a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision in McConnell v. FEC to determine that the BCRA’s prohibition on corporate funding for political advocacy was constitutional.
Citizens United appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Alliance Defending Freedom filed an amicus brief on its behalf supporting free speech. In January 2010, the Supreme Court overturned part of its ruling in McConnell v. FEC and ruled that under the First Amendment, government officials cannot prevent corporations from funding independent political broadcasts.