PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS APPLAUD REP. DONNA EDWARDS FOR FILING CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILL TO OVERTURN US SUPREME COURT RULING ON CORPORATE MONEY IN ELECTIONS
HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIR JOHN CONYERS, JR JOINS FILING
“Free Speech Rights Are For People, Not Corporations”
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland introduced today a constitutional amendment bill to overturn the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling allowing unlimited corporate money in elections. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is a co-sponsor of the amendment bill.
A coalition of public interest organizations and independent business advocates praised the Congresswoman’s action. The groups, Voter Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Corporate Policy, and the American Independent Business Alliance, say the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC poses a serious and direct threat to democracy. Immediately following the Court’s ruling on January 21, 2010, the groups launched a constitutional amendment campaign at http://www.freespeechforpeople.org to correct the judiciary’s creation of corporate rights under the First Amendment over the past three decades.
“Free speech rights are for people, not corporations,” says John Bonifaz, Voter Action’s legal director and the director of http://www.freespeechforpeople.org. “Our history has included prior amendments to the US Constitution which were enacted to correct egregiously wrong decisions of the US Supreme Court directly impacting the democratic process. The Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC demands a similar constitutional amendment response. We applaud Congresswoman Edwards and Congressman Conyers for taking this critical step toward restoring the First Amendment to its original purpose.”
