Latest Developments

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to issue its procedural decision in the Montana case challenging Citizens United.

Here’s a good attempt to interpret where things may be headed, based on the very limited information made public so far, from Brenda Wright’s blog "Policy Shop", published by Demos:

Supreme Court Delays Decision On Montana Money In Politics Case

Brenda Wright

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Senator McCain embraced our view that corporations are not people in an interview with Judy Woodruff on the PBS NewsHour broadcast today.

The relevant parts begin at the 7:28 mark, and the key excerpt is transcribed below.   (If you see only a blank space immediately below, please either wait a minute or so for the video to load and appear, or try clicking the link to the PBS News Hour below.)

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OP-ED: Montana — big sky, clean politics
Can the state preserve its limits on corporate money in elections?

By Steve Bullock
June 15, 2012

It’s too bad American electoral races aren’t as transparent as NASCAR races. Tattooed across NASCAR drivers’ jumpsuits and over every square inch of their cars are the logos of the companies sponsoring the teams, underwriting the costs, paying their salaries. Everyone can see who the drivers represent and who is footing the bill.

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Angela Carella

Stamford Advocate

June 12, 2012

Soon after the American colonies won their fight to separate from the British Empire, the Founding Fathers warned of another threat to government by the people.

Corporations.

The threat does not come from corporations that do business and amass wealth. It comes from corporations that use their wealth to build power for themselves by putting political candidates in office, dictating public policy and evading the law.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel

The Nation

June 12, 2012

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On June 11, 2012, the delegates at the national convention of the League of Women Voters adopted the following statement:

Be it resolved, we, the representatives of local and state Leagues assembled at the 2012 LWVUS Convention, call upon the LWVUS Board to advocate strongly for all appropriate, duly-considered measures which may include but are not limited to a constitutional amendment and which:

· are consistent with our current positions on campaign finance reform and individual liberties;

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This is a solid article in the Post on the many forces coming together to urge the Supreme Court to reconsider Citizens United.

Free Speech For People has played a key role in this effort, leading the filing of an amicus brief before the Montana supreme court, filing the first amicus brief in the Supreme Court’s review of the same case, and also organizing a rally in front of the Supreme Court, urging it to take this case as its opportunity to re-visit Citizens United.

Supreme Court faces pressure to reconsider Citizens United ruling

By Robert Barnes

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Governor Schweitzer lays out Montana’s well-founded reasons for its 100-year-old ban on corporate money in elections, which the Supreme Court is now blocking. Montana’s law is now the basis of a challenge to Citizens United, with the support of amicus briefs by Free Speech For People, Montana businesses, Senators McCain and Whitehouse, and 22 state attorneys general.
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Laura Lundquist

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

June 4, 2012

On an evening in May, eight volunteers gathered in the Gallatin Labor Temple in Bozeman for training in their new endeavor. A few had met before doing similar work: collecting voter information for political campaigns.

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A majority of Connecticut state legislators has signed onto a letter to Congress "in support of the Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and restore elections to the people." and asking that Congress "firmly establish that money is not speech and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights."

Unlike most other states, Connecticut does not do state resolutions calling for Congressional action, so this letter marks Connecticut’s official action calling on Congress to amend the constitution.

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