By Nancy Brumback/Special to the Town Crier

Wicked Local Sudbury

January 25, 2012

Jeff Clements, author and activist, called on citizens to support a Constitutional amendment overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision and got a pledge Tuesday from a Sudbury state legislator to do just that.

Clements advocated for the “People’s Rights Amendment,” a proposal introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-3rd, stating rights granted to people or persons in the Constitution are the rights of “natural persons,” not corporations or other entities created by state or federal laws.

Clements spoke at Curtis Middle School Tuesday night at a public forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sudbury.

During the question period, Rep. Thomas Conroy, D-Wayland, asked the audience of about 100 how many supported that amendment and got an almost unanimous response in favor. Conroy said he would co-sponsor a resolution in the state legislature that calls on Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a Constitutional Amendment restoring rights to the people.

Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton, who represents parts of Sudbury and was also at Tuesday’s event, is a sponsor of the resolution that Conroy mentioned.

Clements, a co-founder of Free Speech for People, a national, nonpartisan campaign to overturn the Citizens United decision, and author of a new book, “Corporations Are Not People,” said the decision reversed years of rulings limiting corporate contributions in elections and unleashed a wave of unrestricted money, starting with the midterm elections in November 2010.  About $4 billion was spent, the most ever in a midterm election.

Read more:

Speaker makes case to overturn ‘Citizens United’ – Sudbury, MA – The Sudbury Town Crier http://www.wickedlocal.com/sudbury/news/x870488098/Speaker-makes-case-to-overturn-Citizens-United#ixzz1kVxu5j3B