https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/29-4A year and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission that corporations are “people” with expanded constitutional rights, the impacts of the ruling continue to reverberate. 24 states have been forced to re-examine their legal limitations on campaign financing by corporations. Among them is Montana, a state with some of the country’s strongest campaign finance laws.
Last year, in response to a challenge brought by the far-right American Tradition Partnership, Montana District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock overturned the state’s landmark Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited corporate spending in candidate campaigns. Sherlock cited the Citizens United ruling as the primary basis for his decision.
Montanans are organizing and fighting back. With the help of the national Move to Amend coalition and the leadership of Councilmember Cynthia Wolken, the City Council of Missoula, Montana recently voted to place a measure on the city ballot calling for Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to clearly state that corporations are not people and that money is not speech.
Wolken is championing the effort because she believes that a constitutional amendment is needed to stop corporate attacks like the one Montana is facing. “This case is just the tip of the iceberg,” she told Truthout in a recent interview. “There will be a lot of lawsuits filed against other states with such campaign finance laws.”
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