Wednesday, January 19, 2011

We’re coming up to the one year anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s fateful Citizens United v. FEC decision. The 5 to 4 decision on January 21, 2010, equated corporations and unions with people and granted them “free speech” rights to spend unlimited money to tell real people which candidates to elect or defeat. Public Citizen has a new, comprehensive report on the consequences of this giveaway of our election system. The nonpartisan group is also working with many other organizations to hold events in Washington and around the nation to mark the anniversary; check this listing for events and add your own! Meanwhile, Ben and Jerry (the people) of Ben & Jerry’s (the ice cream company) are organizing business owners and corporate leaders into a group called “Business for Democracy” to oppose the Citizens United decision. They plan their first action and unveiling of their website on the January 21 anniversary.