At the third annual National Citizen Leadership Conference, citizen leaders, democracy reform advocates, and elected officials will come together to advance solutions to address big money in politics. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), a lead co-sponsor of Constitutional amendment legislation that would enable Congress to regulate election spending and distinguish between corporations and people, will speak at the NCLC about how citizen action can help make important changes in Congress.
On the first day of the 116th Congress, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) joined three of his fellow representatives to introduce bipartisan legislation to address the biggest fundamental issue facing our democracy: big money in politics. Since the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, American elections have been flooded with money from ultra-wealthy donors, corporations, big unions and dark money groups. “In Citizens United, five Supreme Court Justices overturned two centuries of jurisprudence to determine that private corporations enjoy the political free speech rights of the people,” Raskin said. “As hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money are spent by CEOs in the name of their unwitting shareholders, we are seeing what Court-ordered plutocracy looks like.”
To address this critical systemic issue, Raskin and Reps. John Katko (R-New York), Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Ted Deutch (D-Florida) co-sponsored a resolution to pass a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get big money out of politics. Raskin, along with McGovern, will be a speaker at our National Citizen Leadership Conference, Oct. 19-21 in the D.C. metro area. At NCLC, Raskin will discuss congressional action to get big money out of politics, including the proposed amendment, and how citizen action can help drive important change in Washington.
“It’s time we remind America of what popular government looks like—that’s why I’m proud to support this bipartisan amendment to rebuild the wall of separation between massive private corporations and the people’s public elections,” Raskin said.
Raskin and other lawmakers are working to build cross-partisan support in Congress to pass the 28th Amendment and send it to the states for ratification. So far, 20 states (out of the 38 required) and more than 800 towns have passed resolutions calling on Congress to pass the amendment.
Join us at NCLC to help advance the grassroots movement! Can’t come? Follow along on our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
