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American Government and the Constitution Lecture Twelve (view source)

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There are additional issues concerning citizenship that arise from time to time.  Must someone renounce all allegiance to a foreign country in order to become a citizen of the United States?  At one time, merely voting in a foreign election caused someone to automatically lose his American citizenship.  Other issues concern whether dual citizenship should be allowed (it is allowed with some countries), and whether someone can renounce his citizenship (someone can under American law, but the traditional English view was that someone cannot unless the sovereign allows him to).
 
There are additional issues concerning citizenship that arise from time to time.  Must someone renounce all allegiance to a foreign country in order to become a citizen of the United States?  At one time, merely voting in a foreign election caused someone to automatically lose his American citizenship.  Other issues concern whether dual citizenship should be allowed (it is allowed with some countries), and whether someone can renounce his citizenship (someone can under American law, but the traditional English view was that someone cannot unless the sovereign allows him to).
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===Free speech and campaign finance===
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===Free Speech and Political Campaigns===
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Every year there are new disputes over the issue of how much the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects donations and expenditures in political campaigns for elections.  An estimate was that the candidates spent an overall total of $2.7 billion (that's billion, not million), in the recent midterm elections of 2014.  In addition, outside groups are estimated to have spent $900 million.  The overall total is estimated to have been $3.67 billion.
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Some say that is too much.  But it is just a small fraction of what was at stake.  The federal budget is $3.5 trillion (that's trillion, not billion), with a deficit of about $500 billion.  The federal debt is $18 trillion.
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The media have no limits on how much they spend in news and commentary, much of biased, concerning elections.  Should there be any limits on spending by individuals or corporations?
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There are limits on how candidates raise and spend money, and corporations are prohibited from donating to federal campaign.  But in reason years the Supreme Court has expanded application of free speech rights to the context of political campaigns.  In ''McCutcheon v. FEC'' (2014), the Supreme Court invalidated a federal law limiting how much an individual may contribute in one election cycle.  Previously each American could not donate, in one election cycle, more than an overall total of $123,200 to federal candidates, political parties and committees.  The Court held that limit to be a violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, because the limit restricted the amount of "speech" by an individual in the form of contributing money to political campaigns.
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Other limits on political donations continue to exist, and continue to be challenged by lawsuits asserting the First Amendment.
    
== Additional Amendments ==
 
== Additional Amendments ==
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