For more than sixty years federal law has banned corporations from spending their treasury funds directly on elections. With today’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the Roberts Court turned back the clock. Campaign reform advocates say this sets the stage for a deluge of corporate money in politics, and threatens to upend the role of citizens as the central force in our democracy.
Today we launched a letter to President Obama and Congress, which reads "No more Supreme Court justices who believe corporations have the same rights as citizens!" You can sign the letter at https://www.progressivefuture.org/....
This is what Progressive Future's Program Director and long time campaign finance advocate, Adam Lioz, had to say about the decision:
Thanks to the Roberts Court, mega-banks that are using billions of our bailout dollars for obscene bonuses can now use our money to help place their hand-picked candidates into the halls of power.
We’ve seen what happens when Wall Street is accountable to no one. Now we’ll see what happens when our elected representatives are directly accountable to Wall Street.
Bank of America should serve its customers and stay out of politics. But, today's decision could turn us into an America of the Banks, where our elected officials serve huge corporations instead of ordinary citizens.
The corporation that sells the most widgets shouldn’t get to pick the next president. But today the Roberts Court paved the way for huge conglomerates to use their vast wealth to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.
Through lobbying, corporate PACs, and massive advertising budgets, corporations already exert too much influence on American politics. Today’s ruling guts one of the last remaining bulwarks of citizen power.
Can Goldman Sachs walk into a polling place and vote for a U.S. senator? Of course not, so why should we let big banks, or other corporations, have even more influence over who represents us, by spending unlimited money to put company-owned candidates into elected office?
Health insurance companies spent $641,000 every day lobbying against reform in Congress. Now, for a few days’ expense, they can fund high-dollar campaigns to put their executives and advocates directly into Congress. Who needs lobbying when your cronies control the levers of power?
This decision is a slap in the face to ordinary citizens, and a victory for the Chamber of Commerce and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who filed briefs calling for today’s result.
WellPoint Insurance and other corporations don’t have the same rights as citizens. The vast majority of Americans agree. Unfortunately five members of the Supreme Court take another view."
Our Program Director Adam also noted that today’s decision overrules not just 2003’s McConnell v. FEC and 1990’s Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, but also contravenes the logic of a unanimous 1982 decision upholding Congress’ right to regulate the political activity of corporations differently than that of individual citizens (FEC v. National Right to Work Committee).
You can read even more aboutProgressive Future’s analysis of the Citizens United v. FEC decision here.