A Constitutional Amendment to reverse Citizens United and restore the freedom and right of the people to stop the destruction of American democracy by unlimited money of global corporations and the very few continued to make progress this week. In Washington, with fifty-five Senate co-sponsors, the Democracy For All Amendment cleared a filibuster by 79-18, and now faces debate in the Senate.

The US Chamber of Commerce now is trotting out the false assertion that the Democracy For All Amendment somehow threatens speech rights or “amends the First Amendment.” No, the 5-4 Citizens United decision did that, amounting to, in Justice John Paul Stevens’s words, a “radical departure from First Amendment jurisprudence.”

The Democracy For All Amendment simply restores the power that Americans have always had until now — we may insist that our representatives in Congress and the States enact reasonable, content-neutral spending and contribution rules in elections to prevent systemic corruption, ensure fair, free elections and accountable representatives, and to protect American principles of equal citizenship and representation (one person, one vote).

I described more about the US Chamber role in creating the disastrous condition of our political system today in a recent op-ed here.