Who on the court is the champion of free speech, no matter what is spoken?

Who on the Supreme Court is a purist when it comes to the First Amendment? Who stands for free speech no matter its content?

The answer to that question can be found in a fascinating blog posting at The Wall Street Journal by James Taranto, who writes the Best of the Web Today column. In a lengthy, rambling conversation with First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, who famously represented The New York Times in the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, we learn Abrams and his sometimes client are on opposite sides of the Citizens United v. FEC case, in which the court on a 5-4 ruling said corporations and unions have free speech rights.

The author of the majority opinion in Citizens United was Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by the four conservative members of the court.

In 2002, as Taranto reminds, Kennedy was also the author of a 5-4 First Amendment ruling, but in that case he was joined by the four liberal members of the court. The case was Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition and overturned the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, which made it a crime to produce virtual child porn in which no actual children were ever involved.

Free speech should belong to all, not just to those with whom we agree or sympathize. Kennedy is the only one on the court who understands that.