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House Democrats’ ‘Democracy For All’ Amendment Seeks to End Corporate Personhood
Yesterday marked the thirteenth anniversary of the Supreme Court case that re-wrote the political landscape.
On January 21, 2010, the nation’s highest court handed down its ruling on the controversial Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (FEC) decision equating political spending with free speech covered under the Constitution’s first amendment.
Under this ruling, the federal government is prohibited from interfering with corporations, nonprofit organizations, and unions from spending unlimited sums to support or oppose individual political candidates.
As long as they are not presenting funds to campaigns directly, corporations are free to dump as much as they want into political advertising and “super PACs” (political action committees) not required to disclose their donors’ identities.
It’s what former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee — now Utah Senator — Mitt Romney referred to in 2011 when he proclaimed “Corporations are people!”
While Citizens United was not the first high court decision to hand democracy to corporations, several prominent Democratic House members have introduced legislation to overturn it.
