Academic

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: But it is extraordinary -- I mean, the -- the idea and as I understand the rationale, we -- we the government, big brother, has to protect shareholders from themselves.  They might give money, they might buy shares in a corporation and they don't know that the corporation is taking out radio ads.  The government has to keep an eye on their interests.

SOLICITOR GENERAL KAGAN: I appreciate that.  It's not that I have a busy job, it's that I, like most Americans, own shares through mutual funds.  If you don't know where your mutual funds are investing, so you don't know where you are --

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: So it is -- I mean, I understand.  So it is a paternalistic interest, we the government have to protect you naive shareholders.

SOLICITOR GENERAL KAGAN: In a world in which most people own stock through mutual funds, in a world where people own stock through retirement plans in which they have to invest, they have no choice, I think it's very difficult for individual shareholders to be able to monitor what each company they own assets in is doing or even to know the extent of the --