How Top Law Professors Are Working To Expand Corporations’ Constitutional ‘Rights’
Alternet
Steven Rosenfeld
June 18, 2012
Academia’s best and brightest include conservatives who help corporations hide behind the First Amendment to protect profits.
Latest Developments
Voter Initiative on Citizens United Will Be on Ballot in Montana this November
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Reading tea leaves: an update for those watching & waiting
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
Sen. John McCain: “corporations are not people”
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.)
Great L.A. Times Op-Ed by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock
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.
Founding fathers worried about corporate clout
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.
Resolve to Overturn ‘Citizens United’ Spreads Through the States
Delegates at League of Women Voters convention pass resolution on constitutional amendment
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;
Washington Post: Supreme Court faces pressure to reconsider Citizens United ruling
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
NY Times Op-Ed by MT Governor Brian Schweitzer: “Mining for Influence in Montana”
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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