Deirdre Cummings
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG
617-747-4319
[email protected]
Citizens United Opinion Unleashes Flood of Corporate Money in Campaigns
Media Contacts
MASSPIRG
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today’s Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United vs. Federal Election Commission has blown open the gates, in place for decades, that kept the most powerful corporations constrained in election financing.
In a shocking burst of judicial activism, the Supreme Court today issued a decision that says corporations should be treated in the same manner as ordinary citizens and be allowed to spend massive amounts of money on direct attack ads for or against Members of Congress.
“This egregious decision turns back the clock on over 60 years of precedent,” said Janet Domenitz for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG).
“A corporation is not, nor has it ever been, a person with voting rights. Corporations are not your neighbors, they cannot get married, they cannot die, and a corporation is not part of ‘We the People’,” she added. “It is essential that we fix this misstep by the courts, before we see the landscape of elections financing washed away in a raging flashflood of corporate money.”
Lifting the ban on corporate money could further diminish the public voice in a system that already favors monied special interests, and will certainly lessen the public trust in our officials.
MASSPIRG is working in concert with the White House and Senate and House Leadership to help move a legislative fix to slam shut the floodgates that today’s decision has opened.
###
