Equal Citizens, a nonprofit founded by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, on Friday launched a $50,000 contest for participants to create compelling videos challenging the idea that super PACS, which can take money from sources that do not reveal their original donors, are protected by the First Amendment, reports Axios.
Super PACs, created following the 2010 Supreme Court Case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in which the high court ruled that a lobbying group cannot be prohibited from airing the film "Hillary: The Movie," which criticizes Hillary Clinton, can spend unlimited amounts on attack ads and promotional ads as long as they are not directly connected with the candidate.
The goal is to make "it so unavoidably clear, that even lawyers who understand it enough, begin to shift the conventional wisdom about whether Super PACs are constitutionally protected or not," said Lessig.
"What we were thinking at Equal Citizens was, how can we kind of break through that stubbornness and get people to focus on what is an obvious, really literally, logical mistake in the decision of the D.C. Circuit?" he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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