By Jim McGovern and Jeff Clements

The Boston Globe

January 21, 2012

THE FIRST three words of the preamble of our Constitution are “We the People.’’

Two years ago today the US Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission upended that promising vision. Corporations — which do not have mouths, minds, or consciences — won a “free speech’’ right to spend unlimited money to influence elections.

The court cast aside a century of law intended to prevent the biggest, richest corporations from controlling our elections and government. We now see a flood of uncontrolled and undisclosed special-interest money flowing into our electoral system, drowning out the voices of average Americans and deepening cynicism and hopelessness about our politics.

While shocking, Citizens United was not a fluke. Unelected courts have increasingly allowed the radical “corporate speaker’’ theory that lies behind Citizen United to trump the judgment of the people and their elected representatives, and to damage the public interest far beyond elections.

We see the consequences around us, from jobs and wages to health care and the environment.

A federal judge in Washington recently used corporate speech rights to block the Food and Drug Administration from requiring tobacco companies to place graphic warning labels on cigarette packages.

Click here to read the entire article.

Photo by spatuletail / Shutterstock.com