Campaign finance curbs and bipartisan censorship

Congressional Democrats are lining up behind a constitutional amendment to allow restrictions on campaign contributions and spending, and Republicans, to their everlasting credit, are opposed. They agree with the Supreme Court that limits like these are limits on speech, and they think it would be a mistake to amend the Constitution to abridge freedom of speech.

This position is particularly welcome because it represents something of a reversal by the GOP — not on regulating campaign finance, but on censoring speech. Republicans, oddly, have made the reversal without acknowledging — or perhaps even realizing — what they’ve done.