Montana’s rebellion against the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC and the corporate take-over of the Bill of Rights continues. In Missoula, the City Council voted last August to send a referendum to the voters which would condemn Citizens United and call on Congress to send a Constitutional amendment overturning the decision to the states for ratification. The 28th Amendment would make clear that people, not corporations, have Constitutional rights. Yesterday, the voters had their say, and 75% voted in favor of the resolution and a Constitutional amendment. Kelia Szpaller of the Missoulian reports the story here.
The 75% approval of a Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United tracks national polls showing similar margins of Americans across the political spectrum favor the 28th Amendment to reverse “corporate rights.” (Free Speech for People’s poll by Peter Hart showing 75% support for a Constitutional amendment can be downloaded at www.freespeechforpeople.org.) Corporations increasingly have used the fabrication of Constitutional doctrines such as “corporate speech” to strike down election, environmental, public health, financial, and other laws in recent years. This culminated in the 2010 Citizens United decision striking down the bipartisan McCain-Feingold federal law restricting corporate spending in federal elections.
The vote in Missoula comes as Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock continues to defend litigation attacking Montana’s century-old ban on election spending by corporations. AG Bullock argued the case in the Montana Supreme Court in September, and a decision is expected in the coming weeks or months. Montana was joined in its defense of the right of the people and the states to keep corporations out of politics by a wide range of businesses, the state ACLU chapter, and others. Briefs can be read at the Montana Supreme Court website (search under Opinions/Briefs under the party name, Western Tradition Partnership v. Attorney General).
Missoula joins several other cities and towns passing Amendment resolutions by wide margins. The effort was led by City Councilors such as Jason Wiener and Cynthia Wolken, and local supporters of Move to Amend, Free Speech for People, Common Cause, and others.
About Jeff Clements
Jeff Clements, an attorney and author, is the co-founder of Free Speech for People, a national, non-partisan campaign to challenge the creation of Constitutional rights for corporations, overturn Citizens United v. FEC, and strengthen American democracy and republican self-government. He is the author of the Corporations Are Not People (Berrett-Koehler, 2012). Mr. Clements also is the founder of Clements Law Office, LLC, and has represented and advocated for people, businesses and the public interest since 1988.
Mr. Clements served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office from early 2007 to 2009. As Bureau Chief, he led more than 100 attorneys and staff in law enforcement and litigation in the areas of civil rights, environmental protection, healthcare, insurance and financial services, antitrust and consumer protection. Mr. Clements also served as an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts from 1996 to 2000, where he worked on litigation against the tobacco industry and handled a wide range of other investigations and litigation to enforce unfair trade practice, consumer protection and antitrust laws.
In private practice, Mr. Clements has been a partner in the Boston law firms of Clements & Clements, LLP and Mintz Levin. He also has practiced in Maine, where he has represented clients in a variety of appeals and litigation, and in investigations and prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Maine Attorney General’s Office.
In the 1990s, Mr. Clements was elected as a Trustee and President of the Board of Trustees of the Portland Water District, a public agency responsible for protecting and delivering safe drinking water and ensuring proper treatment of wastewater for 160,000 people in Portland and South Portland, Maine and several surrounding communities. He was a co-founder, officer, and director of Friends of Casco Bay, an environmental advocacy organization focused on protection and stewardship of Maine’s Casco Bay. He also has served as a Trustee and President of the Board of The Waldorf School in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Mr. Clements graduated with distinction in History and Government from Colby College in 1984, and magna cum laude with a concentration in Public Law from the Cornell Law School in 1988. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.
If corporations are “people”, then they should be taxed at “people” rates. No special consideration for anything else. They get to file a 1040 just like we do. That would raise their tax rates considerably. If they want the rights, they get to pay for them like we do!
Great job Jeff.
If Corporations are People, lets hope that Judge Rakoff CitiBank ruling will pave the way for the biggest of them, and their Boards of Directors, to go to jail.