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In the decade since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, Americans have seen its devastating effects: Election spending by the wealthiest individuals and untraceable dark money groups has skyrocketed, faith in our representative democracy is historically low, and legislative outcomes don’t represent the wishes of Americans, but rather serve the interests of the wealthy elite. Americans across the political spectrum are uniting for a historic cross-partisan solution: An amendment to the Constitution to reaffirm the promise of equal political representation for every American, not just the wealthiest among us. Read on to learn more about the problem and the solution.

A Visual History of Citizens United

Citizens United 10th Anniversary Across the Web:

From The Concord Monitor – The conservative role in passing an anti-corruption amendment

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision has unleashed a campaign money system dominated by billions in spending controlled by a tiny fraction of voters. Central to its ruling, the court conjured from thin air its assertion that these concentrated billions would not corrupt American politics. Read more

From Our Blog – We the People: Real Citizens United to Save Our Republic

In the decade since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, Americans across the nation have seen its devastating effects: Election spending by the wealthiest individuals and untraceable dark money groups has skyrocketed, faith in the institution of representative democracy is historically low, and legislative outcomes no longer represent the wishes of the majority of Americans, but rather serve the interests of the wealthy elite. Read more

From the Alexandria Gazette Packet – Letter to the Editor: How You Lost Your Voice and How You Can Get It Back

It started exactly ten years ago on Jan. 21, 2010 when the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United, thereby eliminating restrictions on corporate and PAC donations to political campaigns. By equating corporations with people and money with free speech, Virginia became awash with money in our elections. Electoral contributions in Virginia totaled $121.5 million in 2019, double from 2011, with nearly $25 million coming from outside the state. Read more

From The Fulcrum – To engage young Americans in politics, we must end Citizens United

Younger generations are often berated for not turning out to vote at meaningful rates, and that criticism is not totally unwarranted. In the 2016 presidential race, people between 18 and 29 made up just 13 percent of the electorate. But rather than chastising Millennials and Gen Z for not voting, we need to focus on why they aren’t showing up at the polls. Read more

From the LA Times – Ten years on, Citizens United ruling has changed U.S. politics — but not in the way many feared

Ten years ago this month, the Supreme Court shocked the American political establishment with the declaration that corporations had the same rights as people in the eyes of the 1st Amendment, and therefore were exempt from restrictions on political spending. Read more

From The Globe Post – Institutional Shareholders Must Stand Up to Corporate Political Spending

In corporate America, shareholders should be equipped with the tools to limit corporate political spending. This is essential for creating a just and prosperous economy. Read more

From The International Business Times – Business Leaders Can Help Reverse Citizens United

Americans have witnessed a number of stresses to the resilience of our democratic institutions in recent years, but January 21, 2020, marks a particularly ominous anniversary—10 years since the Supreme Court narrowly approved the case of Citizens United, asserting in its 5-4 decision that corporations have the same free speech rights as people and corporate contributions to political campaigns are protected free speech. Read more

From The Hill – 10 years later, Americans stand opposed to Citizens United

Prevailing narratives portray the American people as sharply divided on nearly every issue. Political polarization seems to permeate every aspect of our lives. But the reality is much less black-and-white than we are led to believe. While Americans do hold issue-specific disagreements, there is a growing consensus across the political spectrum that politics as usual is not working and that our government is in need of fundamental reform. Read more

From the Center for Responsive Politics – More money, less transparency: A decade under Citizens United

The proliferation of controversial political advertisements in the past decade isn’t a coincidence. It’s a direct result of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which helped pump billions of dollars into politics from outside sources that are supposed to be untethered from candidates or political parties. Read more

From The Brennan Center for Justice – Since Citizens United, a Decade of Super PACs

As a new decade begins, it’s hard to believe just how different our campaign finance system looks now compared with the beginning of the last decade. One key difference: ten years ago, there was no such thing as a super PAC. That’s because the Supreme Court hadn’t decided Citizens United yet. Read more

From Law & Crime – Harvard Business Professor Blames Citizens United for Enabling ‘American Oligarchy’

It’s been nearly 10 years since the Supreme Court unleashed a torrent of third-party spending on the American political system with the controversial Citizens United decision. And, now, as that anniversary nears, one nonprofit says it’s time for a constitutional amendment to reverse that ruling and kill the flood of corporate cash. Read more

From The Hill – I’m a conservative against Citizens United

Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of the Citizens United decision. Today I’m taking the stage in Washington, D.C., with a bunch of national leaders who argue with me regarding my support of the Electoral College, voter ID laws and opposition to impeachment. Read more

From the Casper Star Tribune – Chestek: The damage has been done to the electoral process

January 21, 2020, will be the tenth anniversary of one of the darkest moments in American political history: the day the United States Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. FEC. That decision allowed corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to so-called “independent expenditure” organizations devoted to electing specific candidates. The damage to our electoral process has been profound. Read more

From the Juneau Empire – 10-year-old court case still mars Alaska’s campaign finance laws

Ten years ago on this day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the controversial Citizens United case. In the 5-4 decision, five Supreme Court justices decided spending to elect our representatives was a form of protected “free speech” that could not be restricted. Read more

From the Boston Globe – Since high court has long record of low points, progress is in people’s hands

The Supreme Court has a long history of suppressing democracy (“Chief Justice Roberts is no defender of democracy,” Renée Graham, Ideas, Jan. 5), and we the people have an equally long history of amending the Constitution to expand democracy. Read more

From The Virginian-Pilot – Sally Ridgway: Citizens United anniversary nothing to celebrate

Last summer we celebrated an event that has deeply affected American life for 400 years, the birth of representative democracy in Jamestown in 1619. Unfortunately, this month we mark the 10th anniversary of another seminal event, this one threatening to destroy that cherished system of government: the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission. Read more

From SW News Media – Letter: Making a case for amendments

Our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, has beautiful words in it. “All men are created equal” and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Well, we know the Constitution that followed, did not live up to these words. The founders apparently did in fact mean only males and not people in general. Although they included the means to improve their document with amendments, to pass them can take a very long time. Read more