The issue focused on the court's legal opinion in the case of American Justice Association v. Smith, the free-speech case that came to the Supreme Court in late 2013. The case involved a law that criminalized the practice of political speech in the United States, and the court's legal opinion in the case was that the law was constitutional. (The case was also in the news for the political rights of the court's five conservative justices, who were not on the court that heard the case.)

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