"America needs to be
responsive to the people, not to corporations and special interests, or it is
no longer a democratic republic."
More than 120 organizations on
Thursday urged members of the U.S. House to support a constitutional amendment
that aims to reverse the damage done to American democracy by Citizens United,
the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that effectively enabled corporations to spend
unlimited amounts of money to influence political elections.
Major civil rights,
environmental, labor, LGBTQ, and good government groups sent a letter (pdf)
to lawmakers, which coincided with a national call-in day for constituents to
pressure their representatives in Congress support the measure.
The letter to House members
says, "We are writing to urge you to cosponsor H.J.Res. 2, the bipartisan
Democracy For All Amendment, which would restore the authority of Congress and
the states to set commonsense rules for the raising and spending of money on
elections to advance political equality for all Americans."
Constitutional amendments
should only be pursued "in the rarest of circumstances," the letter
continues—but the high court's widely opposed 2010 ruling in Citizens
United and related moves "have pushed America to a tipping point in
which big-moneyed interests exert control over all levers of government."
"If the wealthy
individuals and concentrations of capital can drown out the voices of ordinary
Americans in elections, we cease to be a representative democracy,"
declares the letter. "America needs to be responsive to the people, not to
corporations and special interests, or it is no longer a democratic
republic."
Highlighting the significant
public opposition to the Citizens United decision, supporters of the
letter promoted the call-in campaign on social media with the hashtags #CitizensUnited, #28thAmendment,
and #DemocracyForAll:
Introduced in
January by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the amendment is co-sponsored by 138 other
members of the House. All but one, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), are Democrats. The
measure was introduced in
the upper chamber by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) in July and is backed by the other
46 senators who caucus with the Democrats.
"Thanks to Citizens
United and other disastrous court decisions, our electoral system—and as a
result, our democracy—have reached a crisis point," Udall said in
July. "Ever since the Supreme Court ruled to open the floodgates for
unlimited corporate spending in our elections, secret special interest money
has poured in—and drowned out the voices of the American people."
"Now, citizens are losing
faith in our institutions because they have every reason to believe that their
government no longer answers to them," he added. "It's time to
restore the power of the American people to regulate the out-of-control, secret
spending in our elections, and make sure that our elections aren’t put up for
sale to the highest bidder."
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