Constitutional Scholars: Warren’s Lobbying Tax May Violate Constitution – IOTW Report

Constitutional Scholars: Warren’s Lobbying Tax May Violate Constitution

WFB:

Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren’s new anti-lobbying plan may infringe on free speech rights, according to several legal scholars.

Sen. Warren (D., Mass.) released a plan to target lobbyists with additional disclosure requirements, as well as “a new tax on excessive lobbying that applies to every corporation and trade organization that spends over $500,000 per year lobbying our government.” Some constitutional scholars are skeptical such a tax—which goes up to 75 percent of total spending—could survive a Supreme Court challenge. The First Amendment’s guarantee of the right of all citizens “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” applies to paid advocates, according to Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“[Warren] completely forgets and ignores the fact that lobbying is a First Amendment right,” von Spakovsky told the Washington Free Beacon. “The First Amendment says that you have a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That’s what lobbying is, and her idea that it’s somehow evil is just wrong. It’s a basic constitutional right.”

The Warren campaign did not respond to a request for comment. more

10 Comments on Constitutional Scholars: Warren’s Lobbying Tax May Violate Constitution

  1. This WITCH wants to impose a tax on us for every breath we take (carbon tax) & every time we use the commode (flatulence tax). She also wants to impose a tax on everything she can after she figures out a way to do so.

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  2. We don’t need no stinking. Constitution, don’t you know? Her best bud Hillary has a shredder, and bleach bit, and any other means needed to destroy America, that Liz could borrow.

    And if we don’t like it, there’s always the helpful ClintonSuicide Assistance Aides, standing by.

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  3. Like any good semicretin, she wants to tax everybody and everything, whether it is owned or lease. The stupid one does not realize that raising taxes actually drives government revenue to progressively lower levels. When taxes are reduced, government income soars. Dumbocretins will never grasp that concept. Look what happened to revenue under Reagan and now President Trump.

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  4. So does her “wealth tax.”

    But, c’mon, give her a break. She’s not a constitutional scholar. She’s a big corporation bankruptcy lawyer versus little guy creditors.

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  5. My first real job in the 70s, I saw a poster in the lunchroom. Here is what it said:

    New Tax Form Next Year:
    How much did you make last year: ______________
    Send it in.

    I’m not laughing anymore.

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