January 20, 2012 1:54PM 

# Citizens United at Two 

By [Caleb O. Brown](https://www.cato.org/people/caleb-o-brown) 

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The Supreme Court decided *Citizens United* two years ago this week. The complaints about the ruling that have emerged since are often bizarre and misrepresent much of the landmark ruling’s import. [Here’s what the case was about](http://youtu.be/PeGlzEavpTM).

Almost nowhere in the complaints about the *Citizens United* ruling will you hear that the case decided that certain books or Pay-per-View broadcasts could no longer be banned by the Federal Election Commission.

Former FEC commissioner Bradley A. Smith [further detailed the breathtaking arguments](http://youtu.be/MnP4vZRnZKo) made by the government during the initial oral argument.

(And here’s [more](http://youtu.be/bSGDny2nppE) from attorney James Bopp, Jr. on the ultimate ruling.)

Since *Citizens United*, complaints from Common Cause and occupiers of various parks across the United States tend to focus on [corporate](https://www.cato.org/if-you-prick-a-corporation-does-it-not-bleed/) [personhood](https://www.cato.org/when-individuals-form-corporations-they-dont-lose-their-rights/), the [scourge](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/superpacs-speak-voters-politicians-protest) [of](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=14016) SuperPACs and at least one group’s [troubling idea](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71711.html#ixzz1k1VjfOo4) to amend the Constitution so that—once and for all—“campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.”

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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