Community | December 08, 2011 | 54 comments

Bernie Sanders Proposes A Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United

source: http://www.politicususa.com/en/bernie-sanders-citizens-united

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WakeUpPeople
I love this man. -----

Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a constitutional amendment today that would overturn Citizens United and make it clear that corporations are not people.

Sen. Sanders’ proposed Saving American Democracy amendment states,

SECTION 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.

SECTION 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.

SECTION 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.

SECTION 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.

In a statement Sen. Sanders said, “There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment.” Sanders said of the effort to override the court decision that he labeled “a complete undermining of democracy.”

There is one interesting component to the Saving American Democracy Amendment that makes it different from all of the other proposed amendments and remedies designed to overturn Citizens United. Section 4 of the amendment strikes at the basis for every Supreme Court decision related to campaign finance. Sanders is also taking aim at the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision where the Supreme Court ruled spending money to influence elections was a form of protected free speech, and struck down limits on expenditures.

The amendment proposed by Sanders changes this by giving Congress the power to set expenditure limits on individuals, organizations, and candidates themselves. The Saving American Democracy Amendment would return the government back to the people by shutting off the money pipeline from the wealthy and special interests. It is also significant that the amendment limits the amount of money a candidate can give to their own campaign. This means that candidates would no longer have to be millionaires, or grovel at the feet of corporate America and the 1% in order to be able to run.

If this amendment was passed and ratified, anyone could run for office. The electoral process would once again be open to the candidates with the best ideas, not the biggest bank accounts. The Saving American Democracy Amendment would not only get rid of the corrupt Citizens United decision. It was also right a series of decades old wrongs that are based on the Buckley decision.

The odds of the amendment getting the support of the required two thirds majorities in the Senate and House, and ¾ of the states needed for ratification are slim, but that isn’t really the point. It is important to keep calling attention to this issue. Campaign finance reform is the only way for the American people to take back their elections and government.

Sen. Sanders is trying to wake America up with this amendment. The politicians aren’t going to fix it, the one percent isn’t going to kill their golden goose, and the Koch brothers own a majority on the Supreme Court, so it is up to the American people to take back the government that by constitutional design belongs to them.
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54 comments // Bernie Sanders Proposes A Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United

  • dcrog
    • -2
      dcrog  

    • It's clear that the Leftists hate corporate America, and certainly the old ass clown himself, Sanders is on the top of that feces pile, but are there any functioning brains associated with this thread? Corporations are not inanimate objects worthy of scorn from the despondents on the Left, they are organized groups of people, and as such, those people have the right to speak. As Paratus so aptly put it, if it applied to UNIONS as well, there might be a different take on this. But, Unions use the money taken from members to fund political action against the will of the members, who have no say in who gets their money, or even if they want to be in the damn union in the first place. To compare union PAC spending to corporate PAC spending is to compare feces to peanut butter. One is palatable, one is not.

    • 6 months ago
  • Paratus
  • SFirman
    • +3
      SFirman  

    • This is one of the worst things the Supreme Court has done to the American people. Good luck Bernie. Signed the petition!

    • 6 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +3
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image

    • I was doing my best to refrain from posting even one comment @ Current today. I was having success until my curiosity got the best of me and I took a peek at what was being posted as thread stories and noticed this one in particular.

      Then I felt a compulsion to add my "signature" to the petition to incorporate sanity back into the United States Constitution, i.e., a 28th Amendment Bill of Bernie's that addresses the same issues I have had concerning the direction OUR government has tacked its "sails" of the "ship of fools" politicians that have created monsters out of corporations for them to eventually buy this country out from under us...We the People!

      I say that there should be a test...if a doctor cannot "hear" a heartbeat with a stethoscope...you cannot be "labeled" as a human being!

      But where would that leave Dick Cheney? He does NOT have a pulse OR a heartbeat since he had that "pump" implanted in his chest! If he ever had one to begin with....

      Oh...wait...he's never been "human" anywho, so that should not be a problem!

      I signed the petition. It's been a dream of mine for a very long time.

      I hope there is something that comes from all this effort.

      But, even though I have had this dream and am thankful to share it with you all....

      I'm not holding my breath that it will become a reality. There are too many politicians that will not get behind this to make it the "Law of the Land"...sad to say.

      But I could be wrong and am praying that I am!

      +^D 2 all who signed!

    • 6 months ago
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • cmc101
  • Buckeye_Bill
  • Buckeye_Bill
  • hoosierdaddy
  • queenofit
  • WakeUpPeople
  • queenofit
  • Mark701
    • +3
      Mark701  

    • There is no way on earth that our morally and ethically challenged congress is going to see this become law. Specifically, 47% of congress are millionaires which mean congress IS the 1%. Consequently the political and legal right of the people to rectify this issue has been eliminated. That leaves two remaining avenues that can be used to force this amendment to become law--protest and/or violence.

    • 6 months ago
  • wolfess
  • VFORVENDETTA
    • +3
      VFORVENDETTA  
    • Mark701:

      As usual mark your observations are spot on correct, in anything resembling a TRUE democracy, these corporate criminals, Wall Street whores and bought and paid for senators and congressmen, would've had lengthy prison sentences and/or a bullet in their brain a long time ago, good to see you again.

    • 6 months ago
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • alexandrek
  • WakeUpPeople
  • Anonmaly
  • artemis6
  • UrbanErudite
  • Leen61
    • +3
      Leen61  

    • I hope Bernie is successful in trying to do this. But, he will be up against powerful forces. If nothing else, he's keeping this issue in the spotlight. Go Bernie!

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  

    • A member of Congress who listens to the people. How refreshing. This would have a long way to go to be passed, but it is worth the undertaking. It must be done or our system will never heal.

    • 6 months ago
  • thinkingfree
    • +2
      thinkingfree  

    • An absolute answer to the core of the problem. But, and I'm kinda fuzzy on the laws to amend the Constitution, but you have to have a vast majority of Congress to pass any amendment, then be ratified by each state. Not to burst bubbles but there are just to many greedy politicians, lobbyists and CEO's to let that happen. Better to get congress to enforce RICO laws against the conspiracy and corruption that takes place.

    • 6 months ago
  • WakeUpPeople
    • +4
      WakeUpPeople  
    • thinkingfree:

      True, but as the article states:

      "The odds of the amendment getting the support of the required two thirds majorities in the Senate and House, and ¾ of the states needed for ratification are slim, but that isn’t really the point. It is important to keep calling attention to this issue. Campaign finance reform is the only way for the American people to take back their elections and government."

    • 6 months ago
  • thinkingfree
    • +2
      thinkingfree  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      Very true, thats why I always ask producers not to enjoin the rhetoric but to show the facts behind the waste and fraud. We here words from both sides, we need the facts, i.e. 90,000 $ found in a politicians freezer, a bridge to nowhere, lobbyist payoffs to politicians. People want and need facts and the power elite can't fight facts, they can argue politics and beliefs but not facts.

    • 6 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +4
      letsliveinpeace  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9qZZVqSQdo&feature=player_detailpage
      Warning that "American democracy in endangered," Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that allowed unrestricted and secret campaign spending by corporations on U.S. elections. The first constitutional amendment ever proposed by Sanders during his two decades in Congress would reverse the narrow 5-to-4 ruling in Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission.

      Thanks Sen. Sanders.

    • 6 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • cmc101
  • tlsmith63
    • +4
      tlsmith63  

    • I heard that Los Angeles is the first city to be officially against Citizens United. Good for LA!
      And I wish that Sanders would run for president, but he doesn't want to.

    • 6 months ago
  • WakeUpPeople
  • Lisayou
  • ThirdSection
  • queenofit
  • GavinTheMother
  • WakeUpPeople
  • KaptainKangaroo
  • ThirdSection
  • ampersand
    • +5
      ampersand  

    • Proof positive that It IS possible to have a sane, honest and concerned member of Congress representing the people.
      We only need about 60 more of these in the Senate, and 300 more in the House of Representatives, if we continue to choose the old slow route to change.

    • 6 months ago
  • cmc101
  • ampersand
  • cmc101
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +3
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image
    • cmc101:

      Man...you have a knack at hitting that nail smack dab on its head!

      Since they have been bought and paid for by big corporations since GWB's appointments that infused insanity into the Court!

      +^d

    • 6 months ago
  • cmc101
  • JustZ
    • +6
      JustZ  

    • IF only we had this man as our President. Go for it Bernie!!!

      IF amended, this would sure go a long way to correcting this berserk course our country is on since this landmark disaster by the SCOTUS on behalf of their corporate pimps.

      Bernie would have fit in nicely with the continental Congress. This man is the kind of legislator I learned about in elementary school. Mr. Sanders is all about 'Of the People, By the People, and For the People'.

    • 6 months ago
  • Conniepae
  • VFORVENDETTA
    • +4
      VFORVENDETTA  
    • JustZ:

      You realize of course Bernie is a socialist, my God, if he were president, we might have universal healthcare, public schools might be adequately funded, we would stop playing global empire, shut down most of our military bases around the world, and get the hell out of the Middle East.

      Our prison system would not be the number one "growth" industry, and Wal-Mart would not be your number one employer, we might actually begin to actually make something in this fucking country again, and peaceful protesters would not be intimidated nor have there fucking heads busted, by jackboot wearing, paramilitary corporate owned Cyborgs, yep, sure would like to see that day, unfortunately, the Kennedy family was shown what happens when you step out of line of plutocratic interest, but it's still nice to dream, love Bernie!

    • 6 months ago
  • freehit
    • +5
      freehit  

    • Can't wait to hear how faux noise spins this into anti-american freedom destroying socialism etc. etc. Thank you Bernie! To mangle an old T.V. shows title: Freehit loves Bernie. Take THAT Bridget.

    • 6 months ago
  • GavinTheMother
  • Berniefan
    • +7
      Berniefan  

    • A truly great man. He is one of a pathetically few who actually practices Democracy by representing The People. That makes him one of the few who is qualified and can be trusted to change the Constitution. You know he'll do it for all the right reasons. Or should I say for all the left reasons. Go Bernie!

    • 6 months ago
  • VFORVENDETTA
    • +1
      VFORVENDETTA  
    • Berniefan:

      Absolutely correct, my position on Bernie, as well as Peter DeFazio- who's from my hometown-as well as Kucinich, is that they are wonderful representatives of what a democracy COULD be, unfortunately, because we currently live in a plutocracy not a democracy, what they can actually do is very very limited.

      The role that these well-intentioned men play, I consider to be a release valve for the left, give them a few people that they can identify with, but give them no real power, their purpose in this plutocracy is very clear, to act as just a few points of intelligence and reason, in a system which is otherwise completely corrupted by corporate interests, I would be overjoyed to have any of these fellows as president, unfortunately, our government which is now owned and operated by corporate interests has other ideas, I'm not trying to be cynical, just being a realist.

    • 6 months ago
  • Conniepae
    • +3
      Conniepae  

    • Let's see what each representative has to say? Will they place their politics, over the American 'We the People'? They should be held accountable!

      Bernie Sanders is right. If it takes a Constitutional Amendment, because the Supreme Court sumized from the present verbage, 'corporations are people'. We need to change that verbage. Never again should someone, be misled by words into thinking corporations are people too. Without 'we the people' there would be no corporations. We would be 'we the people' regardless of corporations.

      Granted things may be different, but many times it feels like it would be better. The corporations, put many family businesses out of business. That hasn't helped the families.

      It is what it is, but we don't have to accept corporations usurping our voices with money! That's why they wrote the Constitution for 'We the People'! It was to protect us from such shenanigans. Many have been spun to think up is down, black is white, wrong is right, but that doesn't make it true. We can't let them spin corporations into being equal to 'US'. Many corporations aren't even American corporations.

    • 6 months ago
  • FoosMaster
  • wolfess
    • +5
      wolfess  

    • Wow! Even Bernie knows what Lincoln meant when he said 'We the People' have the right to DISMEMBER the government if it doesn't do what is best for us and OUR country!
      Pwr 2 Bernie Sanders! Dismember the 1% and their political WHORES -- so NOT Senator Sanders!

    • 6 months ago
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