Portal:Corporate Rights/Intro

Learn about corporate "speech" and other "rights" v. people's rights. And help put Americans before corporations.

Americans are fighting back against the increased power of corporations in elections and public policy. In January 2010, a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a revolutionary and very harmful decision, in a case called Citizens United, asserting that the Constitution bars Congress from limiting "speech," meaning money spent, to influence our elections. In the two years since the ruling, CEOs and corporations have increased their role in our elections, and they have used "Super PACs" and "non-profit" groups to run multi-million dollar ad campaigns to influence elections and public policy without full disclosure of their financial interests. In essence, corporations and their CEOs are throwing their voices, like ventriloquists, through front groups working to distort our elections through deception and misinformation. Because the Court's 5-4 decision was an "interpretation" of the Constitution and the five guys in the majority may be there for a decade or more, amending the Constitution is the only way to reverse the Court, but admittedly that can seem like a daunting task. A "constellation" of public interest groups the Center for Media and Democracy is working with has been formed and the groups have joined together in a statement of common purpose in agreement that we must amend the Constitution to address this disastrous ruling.

We at CMD believe the decision necessitates having a national conversation about what to do about the problem that most Americans understand--that corporations and their CEOs have too much influence in our politics and policies. A January 2011 poll has found that four out of every five Americans oppose the decision in Citizens United and support a constitutional amendment to reverse it. CMD is providing the resources below, which provide links and information to several organizations fighting excessive corporate influence, to help advance our common objective. You can also sign up to receive emails from us by signing up to help put Americans Before Corporations. Now is not a time for people concerned about these issues to be divided; in order to make headway we must work together and this way attempts to support the necessity of collaboration.