ABSTRACT
The ability to speak anonymously about or on behalf of political issues or candidates is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Under the First Amendment, Congress cannot make laws that infringe on the exercise of free speech. Anonymous political speech has been supported by the courts since the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and remains an issue with the advent of communications by most citizens through the Internet. The legislation regulates the political speech of nonprofit issue-advocacy groups and provides that under certain circumstances, the names of contributors to issue campaigns must be disclosed. Whistle-blowing is speech that involves a current or former employee of a company or governmental agency providing information about its wrongdoing, typically to a regulatory agency or congressional oversight committee. The increased use of the Internet to express political opinions, participate in polls, and comment online may cause such legislation to collide with the consistent constitutional protection of anonymous political speech.
