Between the Lines

February 15, 2012

Interview with Jeff Clements, author of the book, “Corporations Are Not People”, conducted by Scott Harris

Although President Obama opposed the Supreme Court’s January 2010 Citizens United decision that eliminated many limits on corporate contributions to election campaigns, he symbolically threw in the towel in early February to endorse Super Political Action Committees or Super PACs created by the decision. With his endorsement, Obama joined Republican presidential candidates who are already using Super PACs, and urged his supporters to make donations to the Priorities USA Super PAC, established to make unlimited expenditures on the president’s behalf in the 2012 election campaign. But as the White House made this announcement, a press release stated that “President favors action – by constitutional amendment, if necessary – to place reasonable limits on all such spending.”

In response to the Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to record amounts of unlimited and anonymous corporate campaign cash, a number of national groups are campaigning to overturn the high court decision. Activists are gathering petition signatures and urging the passage of resolutions at the city and state level in support of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reverse the court’s declaration in Citizens United, that corporations have the same rights as “living, natural persons.”

Between the Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jeff Clements, co-founder and general counsel with the Free Speech for People campaign and author of the book, “Corporations Are Not People; Why They Have More Rights Than You do, and What You Can Do About It.” He talks about the impact the Citizens United decision has had on increased spending in the 2012 election campaign, and the grassroots effort to reverse that decision and strengthen democracy.

Find more information on the grassroots campaign to overturn the Citizens United decision on corporationsarenotpeople.com/.

Click here to listen to the interview with Jeff Clements