Before leaving the White House, President Joe Biden took one last parting shot at Americans’ free speech and privacy rights. Drawing a comparison to President Eisenhower’s famous farewell address that warned about the rise of the military-industrial complex, Biden offered a warning of his own about what he called the “tech-industrial complex.” Yet, many of Biden’s complaints actually centered on the constitutional rights of American citizens and organizations to speak out openly about politics and the issues of the day without seeking government approval. Biden said:

“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit…

You know, in the years ahead, [] it’s going to be up to the president, the presidency, the Congress, the courts, the free press, and the American people to confront these powerful forces.

We must reform the tax code – not by giving the biggest tax cuts to billionaires, but by making them begin to pay their fair share.

We need to get dark money – that’s that hidden funding behind too many campaigns’ (sic) contributions – we need to get it out of our politics.”

In naming “misinformation” and “dark money” as top crises for the government to address, Biden is essentially saying that America’s biggest problem is the First Amendment. The First Amendment is what stops the government from prohibiting speech it deems to be false or violating the privacy of advocacy groups and their supporters. Those freedoms are not tools for “powerful forces,” as Biden suggests, but essential protections for all Americans against government surveillance and censorship – especially those Americans that disagree with the party in power.

Only 15 years ago, it was not so clear that nonprofits could speak openly about politicians without facing investigations and fines. When the nonprofit organization Citizens United tried to release and advertise a documentary criticizing Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries, the Federal Election Commission warned them that doing so was illegal. The issue went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 15 years ago today that the First Amendment protects the rights of nonprofit corporations, such as Citizens United, the ACLU, NRA, and NAACP, to voice their support or opposition to federal candidates.

The landmark decision, Citizens United v. FEC, unshackled civil society – including nonprofits, businesses, and labor unions – to speak out openly about elections and politics when it matters most. Americans have made extensive use of that freedom in the years since 2010. This year, “outside” spending in elections (i.e., spending not by candidates or political parties) reportedly surpassed $4 billion. That’s a lot of speech from a lot of voices.

No wonder, then, that political leaders like President Biden dislike it. Like many others in Washington, Biden has sought to demonize American nonprofits and donors who criticize his agenda by slurring them as “dark money” groups. At the same time, he has received ample support from “dark money” groups and donors on the left and even recently awarded the Medal of Freedom to George Soros, likely the most well-known “megadonor” to left-leaning nonprofits in the U.S.

Yet, the problem with Biden’s remarks is much deeper than mere hypocrisy. Through legislation like the DISCLOSE Act, which the Biden administration endorsed, politicians have sought to force nonprofits to open up their books and expose their members to potential harassment and even violence in order to bully them into forfeiting the freedoms they won in Citizens United. There are also many efforts to overturn or simply ignore the decision.

These attempts to roll back First Amendment rights are driven by hyperbolic claims about “dark money” that fail to hold up under scrutiny. Nonprofits that are not required to expose their donors only account for about 3-5 percent of campaign spending. While these groups are free to participate in some campaign speech, IRS rules forbid them from making political activity their primary purpose. In essence, the majority of a nonprofit’s activities must be issue- or mission-driven and free from any political advocacy. Also, if a donor directs a nonprofit to use their gift to fund campaign spending, that donor must be disclosed. Those rules effectively encourage most politically-minded donors to give directly to candidates or super PACs, which must publicly disclose their donors.

Moreover, charities and nonprofits organized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code are still prohibited under the Johnson Amendment from donating to super PACs or making independent expenditures in elections. Citizens United concerned 501(c)(4) advocacy groups, whose donors do not receive a tax deduction for their giving, as well as 501(c)(5) labor unions and 501(c)(6) trade associations.

Campaign finance laws and stifling regulations like those the FEC tried to enforce against Citizens United are intended to prevent corruption and inform voters about who is supporting the candidates on their ballots. Yet these laws, like any others, cannot supersede our core constitutional rights to freedom of speech and association. When Americans join together in support of a cause, the government cannot limit their speech and has only very limited power to invade their privacy. While many restrictions and disclosure requirements remain, Citizens United significantly expanded the freedom Americans possess to organize and speak about politicians and political issues without being exposed to potential harassment and retaliation from political elites and entrenched interests.

That may be bad news for career politicians like Joe Biden, but it’s great news for civil society and the American people. As the second Trump administration begins, our country faces many challenges, but too much free speech and privacy are not among them.