The Montana Plan To Kill Citizens United via www.levernews.com/…
A state ballot measure could undermine and render the Citizens United decision toothless. And other states could join in the party.
Now here's the good news.
The fight against Citizens United is also happening in the here and now. In one ruby red Republican dominated state, a movement has sprung up that challenges the entire idea that we need to wait for a unified Congress, ratification from states, or a progressive Supreme Court to transform our country's campaign finance system.
This gets a bit nerdy, but the basic premise of the plan rests on the fact that corporations are creations of state laws, not federal laws. Corporations are created by filing a charter of incorporation in a particular state, which grants them certain powers in order to for them to carry out their business purposes. Back in the 1800’s, states competed with each other, in a race to the bottom, to entice corporations to file their charters in their state. It saddens me that my home state, New Jersey, was the first state to offer corporations all of the rights of natural born citizens, including, free speech, among others.
Although state laws allowing the creation of of corporations date from the earliest days of the US, it wasn’t until after the Civil War and the shift away from the US being mostly an agrarian economy towards an industrial economy that spurred states into granting corporations powers, including eminent domain.
It has been said, loudly and often, that corporations are people. Of course, this is ridiculous on its face. The main difference is that people are born with all their rights and powers while corporations have only the rights and powers granted to them by the statutes of the various states in their statutes regulating the process of incorporation. Just as states can expand the rights and powers of the corporate person, they can also limit them.
In Montana, a bipartisan coalition of former lawmakers, academics, and strategists are now spearheading a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to ban corporations from spending money on politics.
At first glance, this sounds like a pipe dream. But, since the earliest days of the United States, the Supreme Court has NEVER ruled against a state regulating corporate behavior in its process of creating corporations. Corporations are not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution and the right of a State to create a corporation has never been questioned by the Supremes.
According to a brand new poll, 74% of Montanans would vote in favor of this proposed ballot measure to eliminate corporate spending in elections, and that support is bipartisan. 84% of Democrats, 69% of Republicans, and 64% of independents said they would support the measure.
As long as Montana doesn’t discriminate against corporations, i.e. favoring Montana State corporations over corporations incorporated in other states and doing business in the state, this initiative should survive challenges such as alleged violations of the Commerce Clause in the US Constitution.
