Forum Post: Do you want to help get rid of Citizens United by making one phone call ?
Posted 11 years ago on May 4, 2012, 10:22 a.m. EST by bensdad
(8977)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Do you want to help get rid of Citizens United by making one phone call
( before May 10) ?
American Tradition Partnership ( was Western Tradition Partnership ), is a radical Conservative 501(c)4 advocacy group aimed at countering “environmental extremism." It has won several lawsuits overturning state campaign finance regulations.
On October 18, 2011, ATP broke state campaign laws even while it has fought to weaken those election laws. The investigation discovered that the group had solicited unlimited contributions from domestic & foreign corporations to support pro-mining, pro-logging and pro-development candidates in Montana and avoided disclosing the contributions by passing them along to a sham political action committee that in turn ran attack ads against Democrats.
ATP challenged the law following the SCOTUS ruling in Citizens United. ATP filed suit alleging a violation of ATP's federal constitutional ( via Citizens United ) right to free speech. On December 30, 2011 the Montana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the broad protections given to corporations in Citizens United v. FEC do not apply to Montana’s campaign finance laws.
Montana opinion was seen as a direct rebuke of the Supreme Court’s two-year-old ruling, which has spurred a huge increase of money in political campaigns through the use of Super PACs.The Montana Court called the SCOTUS declaration that corporations have the same rights as individual humans "utter nonsense" and called Citizens United a "crabbed view of corruption" They criticized Citizens United as being unrealistic about the corrupting influence of unlimited secret money, and the court cited a litany of evidence to prove the direct correlation between independent expenditures and political corruption. Judge Nelson called the reasoning of Citizens United "smoke and mirrors”.
ATP has now asked the United States Supreme Court to summarily overturn the Montana ruling. It contends the state court decision is an “outright refusal of the majority to follow Citizens United.”
You can do something about this NOW.
February 17, 2012 The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Montana Supreme Court's decision in December upholding the state's century-old ban on corporate political spending. The ruling sets up a possible full-blown SCOTUS rematch over the 2010 Citizens United decision that allowed unlimited corporate campaign spending. A five-member majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United declared that corporations' independent spending in elections does not corrupt -- or even appear to corrupt -- the political process. The justices, stayed the case "pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition" for a merits determination. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Justice Stephen Breyer, welcomed the opportunity for the court to revisit, and potentially reverse, Citizens United: "Montana's experience, and experience elsewhere since this court's decision in Citizens United make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that .independent expenditures by corporations do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. A petition for certiorari will give the court an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums .currently deployed to buy candidates' allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway."
Do you want to see the Citizens United case reviewed by the Supreme Court ? & MAYBE overturned ?
[ It just needs ONE Justice to change his mind. ]
Montana’s Attorney General, Steve Bullock is fighting this [ ATP ] case in the Supreme Court – on the people’s side. It is urgent that Attorneys General from other states send an “Amicus Brief” which is a “friend of the court” document supporting the Montana case.
Please go to the http://www.democracyforamerica.com/ website or
( phone 802-651-3200 )
to find your state’s attorney general contact info &
IMMEDIATELY send letter or email or call to request that “your” AG IMMEDIATELY send an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court
STAND WITH MONTANA
“A representative democracy only works when everyone truly has a voice, and when the voices of the many aren’t drowned out by the pocketbooks of a few.”
(Helena Independent Record Editorial, 2-21-12)
Our elections are under assault from big money. It’s time to fight back.
For 100 years, Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act has served our state well, ensuring that our state government ultimately serves the people of Montana, and not wealthy corporate interests. But all of that is now threatened by the Citizens United decision. Our democratic system was already threatened by big money in politics, but the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. FEC opened the floodgates. In that decision, the Court ruled that corporations have the same rights as people, and that their unlimited corporate political spending equates to constitutionally protected free speech.
Quite simply, corporations are not people. They do not breathe, they do not have children, they do not die fighting in wars for our country, and they do not vote in elections.
Stand_with_Montanans_launch_1.jpg
On Tuesday, February 28, Stand with Montanans: Corporations Aren’t People – Ban Corporate Campaign Spending launched a campaign to get corporate money out of our elections. The campaign filed language with the Montana Secretary of State to place a citizen initiative on the November 2012 ballot that would set as the policy of the State of Montana that corporations are not people and money is not speech as well as direct Montana’s congressional delegation to work to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would nullify the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United v. FEC. Speaking at the news conference were former Montana Secretary of State Verner Bertelsen, attorney Jon Motl, and former Common Cause Montana Director C.B. Pearson
Find your AG contact:
http://democracyforamerica.com/activities/776