Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) released the following statement on the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.
“It has been five years since the Supreme Court gave corporate money unlimited influence over our elections,” said Reps. Grijalva and Ellison. “Since then, corporations, special interests, and the mega-rich have spent millions of untraceable dollars to flood our electoral process – effectively silencing the American people.”
“In the 2014 midterms alone, Super PACs spent more than $170 million dollars influencing electoral outcomes. Corporations are not people and elections should never be bought. Campaign contribution limits were set for a reason: to protect the voice of the people. It’s time we amend the constitution to overturn the Citizens United to end the influence of dark money over our political process and prove once and for all that the will of the American people is not for sale to the highest bidder.”
In 2012, the Congressional Progressive Caucus formally adopted a declaration stating:
“We declare our support for amending the Constitution of the United States to restore the rights of the American people, undermined by Citizens United and related cases, to protect the integrity of our elections and limit the corrosive influence of money in our democratic process.”
Rep. Ellison also introduced the Get Corporate Money out of Politics Constitutional Amendment (H.J. Res. 92) in 2012, which Rep. Grijalva co-sponsored. The Amendment reaffirmed the importance of a level playing field and authorized Congress and the States to regulate election contributions of for-profit corporations.
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