Community | January 05, 2012 | 9 comments

New York City calls on Congress to overturn Citizens United ruling

source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/04/new-york-city-calls-on-congress-to-overturn-citizens-u...

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John Bonifaz, the co-founder and director of Free Speech For People, said a New York City Council resolution calling for legislation to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling was a “great victory for democracy.”

New York City Council voted Wednesday to call on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment overturning the ruling, which held that corporations had the same First Amendment rights as U.S. citizens and that political spending was free speech. Los Angeles and other cities have passed similar resolutions.

“It shows that this movement is only going to continue to build as people across the nation stand up to protect our republic and our constitution,” Bonifaz said on MSBNC.

“We are already seeing traction from people across the political spectrum who want to stand up to and say it is time to get money out of politics, it is time to make clear that corporations are not people with constitutional rights.”

Bonifaz said the “biggest new development” was a recent Montana Supreme Court ruling, which upheld a ban on corporate political expenditures in state elections.

“Here you have out of a red state a five justice majority making there that they are not going to let their century old ban on corporate money be overturned.”

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9 comments // New York City calls on Congress to overturn Citizens United ruling

  • circlesquared
  • Leen61
  • thinkingfree
  • rossmick
  • rerushg
    • +1
      rerushg  

    • This is really great. Let's hope their intentions are honorable.
      Also let's recall, as Lessig reminds us, that the CU ruling is not quite two years old. We had a corrupt system long before CU came along. There's much more to be done.

    • 5 months ago
  • fiberbundle
    • +3
      fiberbundle  

    • Patriots from both parties in Congress should introduce model legislation to define the commercial rights of corporations, e.g., the right to contract etc.that replaces the hodge podge of Court rulings. These delineated business processes (commercial rights) cannot be conflated with the rights of human beings endowed by their Creator. One citizen; one vote. Congress may in the future allow unlimited spending or not; but certainly not on the flawed legal theory that a corporation is a human being with rights that are protected to the same extent as intended by the Bill of Rights. Corporations have to do with property rights and liabilities; not political rights.

    • 5 months ago
  • 99percentnomad
  • wolfess
  • WakeUpPeople
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