By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — One of the many provisions of H.R. 1, a bill that has passed the U.S. House, but has not yet come to the floor in the U.S. Senate, would require those engaging in political speech to release who gives them money. The Kansas Policy Institute, a free-market organization, believes that is bad policy.
"Silencing the opposition is an absolute must for people who want to change the kind of country that we have," said Dave Trabert with the Kansas Policy Institute. "They cannot allow opposition. The Constitution gets in their way, because people have absolute free speech rights."
There is legal precedent for not allowing the chilling of speech by documenting donor lists.
"The ACLU has even come out and said this is wrong," Trabert said. "There's no question it's unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1958 ruled when the state of Alabama was trying to do this exact thing to members of the NAACP. They didn't want African-Americans talking about rights in Alabama. They said, well, just give us your names of your donors and we'll go scare the hell out of them and that will shut you up. The Supreme Court said you may not do that. That is silencing speech. They know, there is no question, this is unconstitutional."
This is the reason why Kansas Policy Institute pushes back hard against those who assume they know who donates to them.
"It's not just a curiosity," Trabert said. "I get the curiosity. They don't have a constitutional right to know who contributes to what, whether it's Kansas Policy Institute, the NAACP or the Audobon Society. Frankly, some people contribute to organizations like Kansas Policy Institute because we cannot be intimidated."
The concern is that if you can't intimidate organizations, you might be able to intimidate individuals.