In a painful flex, Volokh Conspirator Steven Calabresi makes a bold constitutional argument in defense of Donald Trump in the “hush money” case.
Every day breathless articles appear in the New York Times, and through-out the liberal media, about Donald Trump’s allegedly lawless payment of hush money to help out his 2016 presidential campaign. In fact, Donald Trump has a First Amendment right to spend money, as does the Trump Organization, to further his electoral ambitions. In Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court wrongly upheld expenditure limits on how much non-candidates could spend on elections, but it rightly held that wealthy individuals like Donald Trump could spend as much as they wanted to spend of their own money on election campaigns. And, they can spend their money on hush money payments, television or radio advertisements, or in any other legal way that would further their own campaigns or electoral ambitions.
The indictment doesn’t charge Trump with a crime for paying out hush money. He’s free to pay porn stars as much as he wants to keep them silent. This is America, after all. Continue reading