Our toilet paper has first amendment rights!
Koch Industries will not reveal any information pertaining to how they fund or do not fund climate change research. This is according to a
letter that Koch Brothers'
minion lawyer Mark V. Holden. The letter is a response to an inquiry sent out by Senators Ed Markey, Barbara Boxer, and Sheldon Whitehouse, to 100 companies with fossil fuel interests. In it the senators ask for the last 10 years of financial records pertaining to research in the field of climate change science. In Holden's letter he invokes the Koch Industries' First Amendment rights:
To the extent to that your letter touches on matters that implicate the First Amendment, I am sure you recognize Koch's right to participate in the debate of important public policy issues and its right of free association. These rights have been recognized by the United States Supreme Court.
[bold my emphasis]
The senators' probe comes on the heels of revelations that the research of Wei-Hock Soon, prominent (and thoroughly discredited) climate science denier, was being almost entirely funded by fossil fuel concerns. Another refresher here.
Koch Industries has already said they plan on spending upwards of $1 billion in the upcoming 2016 election cycle. To most oxygen-breathing animals on our planet, this is terrible news since they seem to support candidates who believe in witchcraft more than they believe in climate science.