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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Group Working to Undo Citizens United Strikes a Chord in MT?

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012   

HELENA, Mont. - The U.S. Supreme Court decision giving corporations the right to make unlimited political contributions is so unpopular it won't be the law of the land much longer, according to people working to undo Citizens United.

The group "Move to Amend" says corporations should not have the same constitutional rights - including free speech - as individuals.

Montana was thought to be immune from the ruling, but a recent Supreme Court denial to hold a hearing upends that belief.

Move to Amend spokesman Dave Cobb says polls have found 80 percent of Americans across the political spectrum don't like the current law.

"Whether they're a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, a Green, a Libertarian, this is not just an issue. This is a principle about how our government is supposed to operate."

Cobb has traveled around the nation for the past year-and-a-half, talking about the issue. He says he's never seen a court ruling that offends so many people so deeply, which is why he expects it to be changed - one way or another.

In "Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission," the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not limit corporate and union political spending because buying advertising is a form of free speech. Separate rulings have found that corporations have many of the same constitutional rights as do individuals, including free speech.

The court decisions mean super-PACs are able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads this election.

Cobb says whenever his group puts forward a constitutional amendment to address Citizens United, people respond.

"We put it on the ballot, it passes by 70, 75, 84 percent of the vote. There is no doubt that Citizens United is not going to be the law of the land within 10 years."

More information is online at movetoamend.org.


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