The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (2010) is harmful to the American people and a perversion of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment uses the word person to refer to actual human beings, not corporations. The decision in Citizens United harms our democratic republic.
The court not only struck down the 2006 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, it also struck down the 1907 Tillman Act in a stunning display of judicial activism and legislating from the bench. Taken together, the Citizens United decision, and its predecessor, Buckley vs. Valeo (1976), wrongly equate wealth with speech. As a result, the court has created and enforced a system of political inequality to match our system of economic inequality.
It is vital for our nation and for all of the American people that we restore our democratic republic to a proper understanding that corporations are not persons, and money is property, not speech.
Howard Leighty
Vancouver
