Senators Introduce Consitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United

By aaroncynic in News on Nov 2, 2011 8:00PM

Seven Democratic Senators, including Illinois' Dick Durbin, introduced a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision. The 2010 Supreme Court decision gave corporations the ability to spend money directly on campaign advertising anonymously.

The amendment gives Congress the ability to regulate and limit money spent on federal campaigns, while states would regulate spending on their own elections. In addition, the amendment gives ability to regulate and limit monies coming from super PACs. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the amendment does not impose regulations, but allows Congress the ability to pass campaign finance reform measures that stand up to Constitutional challenges.

Finally, the amendment would overturn the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo, which called money spent in elections a form of free speech. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), another co-sponsor, called the Buckley decision “one of the worst decisions that the Supreme Court has rendered in the last hundred years.”

In a press release posted on the website of New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, the bill's primary sponsor, Durbin said the amendment would “enable Congress to enact common sense reforms that cannot be overturned by the Supreme Court” and that the Court’s decision Citizens United "jeopardize core principles of our democracy and threaten to give corporations and special interests an outsized influence on our elections.”

Obviously, such an amendment would face a long, and potentially hostile road, given Republican opposition to such bills as the DISCLOSE Act. However, with recent polls showing large amounts of disapproval for Republicans in Congress, along with increased public support for Occupy Wall Street movements which have denounced Citizens United, their constituencies may yet turn up the heat in favor of such an amendment.