The constitutional amendment would ban corporate political spending, cap the amounts of money that political donors can contribute or spend, require Congress to enact public campaign financing or lose their salaries, and empower states to develop their own campaign finance limits while overturning Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 10, 2025) – Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts today reintroduced the Free and Fair Elections Amendment, a bold constitutional amendment to end the domination of big money in U.S. politics and return power to the people.

The amendment is designed to be self-executing: once ratified, it would directly impose sweeping campaign finance reforms without requiring congressional action. Key provisions include:

• Banning corporate political spending to influence federal elections.
• Capping individual contributions and expenditures in federal races at $1,000 in the aggregate.
• Requiring Congress to enact a system of public financing for federal candidates, or forfeit congressional salaries until they comply.
• Empowering states to establish their own contribution and spending limits for state and local elections.

The amendment would overturn Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo, and other Supreme Court rulings which have blocked Congress, states, and local governments from protecting our democracy and promoted growing inequality. In Buckley, the Court held that limits on contributions to candidates can only be justified if they prevent “corruption,” and individuals (including self-funded candidates) have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money in elections. In Citizens United, the Court extended that same right to corporations, reversing decades of campaign finance law. A subsequent case decided by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, SpeechNow v. FEC, relied on this ruling in a decision that led to the creation of super PACs. 

Since Citizens United, more than $77 billion has poured into U.S. elections, rigging our democratic system to benefit the well-off and well-connected,” said McGovern. “That’s not democracy—that’s an auction. It’s government of, by, and for billionaires and big corporations, not the people. To fix our broken system, Congress must get big money out of politics and restore democratic power to the ballot box where it belongs.

The text of the amendment was developed by Free Speech For People, a nonpartisan nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to defending the Constitution and fulfilling the promise of democracy and political equality for all.

In the wake of a presidential election in which the world’s wealthiest man profoundly and perhaps decisively influenced the result — by spending almost $300 million in support of Donald Trump’s campaign, $44 billion to purchase the world’s largest social media platform and turn it into a de facto arm of the Trump campaign, and millions more in multiple $1 million bribes to individual voters — getting big money out of our elections has never been more urgent.  The Free and Fair Elections Amendment will do just that by once and for all imposing strict limits on campaign contributions and election spending and mandating public financing of elections,” said Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor of Free Speech For People. “We commend Congressman McGovern for reintroducing the amendment and continuing to courageously fight for a democracy of and for the people, rather than an oligarchy for the corporations and the mega-wealthy.

Congressman McGovern has also long championed the People’s Rights Amendment, which would end the fiction of corporations being treated as people with constitutional rights. Free Speech For People served as the lead drafters of that amendment as well.

For more information on the Free and Fair Elections Amendment, click here.