The Independent View: Overturning Citizen United v. FEC

On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case.

Moments after the court issued its decision many groups announced campaigns to overturn the ruling. One of these groups, Public Citizen, began their campaign to overturn the ruling and prevent a wholesale corporate takeover of the American experiment in living democracy.

As they near the midpoint of year four in their campaign, here is an update of their efforts:

1. A majority of members of both houses of Delaware’s legislature signed a letter urging the U.S. Congress to pass a constitutional amendment reversing Citizens United. Delaware joins Illinois, Maine and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia, in formally calling for an amendment this year. To date, 15 states have joined the nationwide of support for an amendment. Ultimately, an amendment will have to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. That’s 38. Four more and they are halfway there.

2. In New Hampshire and Oregon, the state legislatures are still in session and there is anticipation they will be the 16th and 17th states to join the amendment movement.

3. They have been working with supporters and allies in nine other states — Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas — that highlight an ability to carry the momentum into states where this kind of movement may be a tougher sell.

4. $23 million was spent in the New Hampshire gubernatorial race in 2012, where 80% of that record-breaking amount was spent by super PACs. Or $400,000 on four city council seats in Oklahoma City last fall, where a single super PAC tried to buy seats that pay an annual salary of $12,000. Corporate executives can do basic math. And they know that investments in election outcomes can pay for themselves many, many times over — both in access to officials and in pro-corporate policies.

At the time of the Citizens United ruling, nearly half the states had laws restricting corporate political spending. In an instant, five Supreme Court justices wiped out these popular and commonsense policies. They turned the corporate money valve fully to “ON” and broke off the lever.

Even though Citizens United prohibits states from limiting corporate political expenditures, states are allowed to require full disclosure of the money corporations spend trying to influence elections.

A report from the Corporate Reform Coalition (a network of more than 70 organizations spearheaded by Public Citizen) compiled examples of states working to limit corporate money in politics:

1. Twenty-one states — Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin — changed their disclosure laws after Citizens United rendered their original laws unconstitutional.

2. Alaska, California and North Carolina now require the names of the top contributors to be listed in any electioneering advertising.

3. Iowa now requires a corporation’s board to approve its independent spending.

4. Maryland now requires that shareholders be informed of corporate political spending directly.

5. Connecticut now requires that the chief executive officer appear in any ad paid for by a corporation.

Outside spending is overwhelmingly focused on negative advertising.

Public Citizen found that more than 85% of unregulated independent expenditures made by the 15 biggest outside groups in the 2012 election cycle financed negative messages.

More than 90% of the money spent by Karl Rove’s Crossroads and by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was directed against candidates, as was ALL of the money spent by the Obama-supporting Priorities USA Action.

Voters are discouraged and alienated by the slew of negative ads aired by outside groups.

Where candidates are somewhat deterred from running attack ads, because voters may hold them accountable for the tone of their campaign, outside groups are accountable to nobody other than their handful of funders and therefore are not deterred at all.

The reality is that negative advertising works, but it does so largely by turning people off to politics and the electoral process altogether.

This outrage has translated into more than 2 million signatures on petitions calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, with more added every day.

The coalition of groups working for an amendment has grown from 60 organizations last year to more than 150 today, representing a spectrum of civil rights, community, environmental, labor and student groups, and many more — with Public Citizen among those at the forefront.

Some 500 cities and towns throughout the entire country have passed resolutions calling for an amendment.

As has been noted, a key step on the path to an amendment is getting support from two-thirds of the members of each house of Congress.

That would be 290 representatives and 67 senators.

We already have 109 representatives and 29 senators.

With 36 more representatives and 5 more senators, we’ll be halfway to that two-thirds threshold.