I'm Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to the latest of our We the People constitutional podcasts.

The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America chartered by Congress to disseminate information

about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.

And today we discuss one of the most interesting First Amendment questions that the Supreme Court is taking up this term,

should elected judges be allowed to ask for campaign donations.

The debate focuses on the First Amendment rights of judges to ask personally for money, and it has

to be balanced against concerns that it's improper for judges to ask directly for funds

in any context.

Judges are elected in 39 states and in 30 of those states there are laws or ethics provisions

that ban judicial candidates from personally asking for campaign donations and the question in the case that the Supreme

Court just heard, Williams-Uulie versus Florida Bar is whether those bans are consistent with

the First Amendment.

The case involves Linnell, Williams-Ulee,

a candidate for county clerk judge in Florida,

who personally signed a campaign fundraising letter in 2009,

and the Florida bar said that violated the state's

code of judicial conduct. The Florida Supreme Court agreed that the Florida

bars assessment that the mass mailing violated the judicial conduct and

the question before the Supreme Court is whether that canon is consistent with the First Amendment.

Joining us to discuss the case are two of the leading civil libertarians in the United States,

also two of the leading experts on judicial and First Amendment questions in America, and it is fascinating and significant that they are on opposite sides of this case.

Bob Kornrevere is a partner at Davis Wright-Tremain in Washington, D.C.

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