HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in a fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from using its 2010 Citizens United decision to strike down state laws on corporate campaign expenditures.
The states aim to preserve state-level restrictions on corporate political spending. They say Montana’s law is sharply different from the issues in the Citizen United case that removed a federal ban on corporate expenditures.
Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock convinced the state Supreme Court last year to keep intact Montana’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act. That prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and block that ruling so until it can look at the case.
The intervening states argue that laws like Montana’s are needed to prevent corruption.
