Corporations Hiding Dirty Secrets Behind Free Speech Claims May Soon Have To Admit Bloody Hands Posted on December 9, 2014 (October 1, 2018) This week, Free Speech For People joined Global Witness in filing a brief that pushes back on corporate claims that requiring the labeling of products as “conflict-free” violates commercial free speech rights.Read More
FSFP Joins Global Witness In Brief Addressing “Conflict Minerals” and First Amendment Claims By Corporations Posted on December 8, 2014 (June 30, 2015) We are re pleased to join Global Witness Limited in an important brief pushing back against a First Amendment claim by the National Association of Manufacturers and other corporate interests. Read More
Citizens’ Ballot Initiative Another Casualty of Citizens United Decision Posted on November 25, 2014 (June 30, 2015) Jeff Clements of Free Speech For People is featured on TruthOut commenting on the new Gilded Age created in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Not until the 20th century, did “we the people” have access to ballot initiatives as a tool for democracy. The unlimited corporate campaign spending resulting directly from Citizens United continues to threaten our power to enact reasonable spending rules and to return our Constitutional rights to human beings, not corporations.Read More
Watch The Lenox, MA Performance of “Go Granny D!” Posted on November 24, 2014 (June 30, 2015) Off-Broadway actress Barbara Bates-Smith and musician Jeff Sebens take to the stage in Lenox, Massachusetts to highlight the story of the remarkable “Granny D”, who at age 89, walked 3,200 miles across the country to crusade for campaign finance reform. This special performance pays tribute to the life of Doris “Granny D” Haddock and shares how we can end the big money dominance of our elections and restore democracy to all.Read More
FSFP Filed An Amicus Brief in Grocery Manufacturers Association, et. al. v. William H. Sorrell, Attorney General Posted on November 14, 2014 (September 17, 2020) Corporate Abuse of Power Free Speech For People has filed an amicus brief before the federal district court in Vermont in defense of Vermont’s recently-passed law requiring the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering. The law requires food sold in Vermont that was produced with genetic engineering to be labeled “produced with genetic engineering.” Major agribusiness and industrialRead More
Recap From Our Harvard Law School Symposium on Advancing Democracy Featuring Senator Jon Tester Posted on November 11, 2014 (June 3, 2015) Democracy Amendments [View the story “A Recap Of Our Harvard Law Symposium on #AdvancingDemocracy” on Storify]Read More
Senator Tester Draws Connection Between Big Money In Politics And Voter Suppression Posted on November 7, 2014 (June 26, 2015) (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) – With Harvard Law School as his backdrop, Senator Jon Tester today warned the country that without campaign finance reform, America’s entire election system is at risk. Read More
Watch Jeff Clements Speak at the 31st Annual Jefferson B. Fordham Debate Posted on October 20, 2014 (January 15, 2015) Free Speech For People co-founder, Jeff Clements joined Kent Greenfield, Professor of Law at Boston College, for a debate moderated by Professor Schwartz at the University of Utah. The debate, hosted by University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, addressed the issue of corporate personhood. Watch the full debate Click hereRead More
Will the Supreme Court save industry’s bacon? Ron Fein Explains via The Hill Posted on October 16, 2014 (January 13, 2015) The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, “however, some judges use it as a bludgeon to strike down common-sense disclosure rules” exlains our legal director, Ron Fein to The Hill. Disclosures that would benefit workers, investors, and customers, are often ruled against to protect the purported First Amendment rights of businesses and corporations. This summer,Read More
Sen. Goldwater Would Have Hated ‘Citizens United’ According to Ron Fein in the Washington Post Posted on October 15, 2014 (October 20, 2014) Last month, Post columnist George F. Will quoted Barry Goldwater in the opening lines of his piece, arguing that the Citizens United decision protects Americans’ First Amendment rights. Today in the Washington Post, our legal director, Ron Fein revists Goldwater’s record, and explains the unlimited political spending by business corporations is exactly what Goldwater didn’tRead More