On the recordJuly 27, 2010
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said: The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. This statement is all too true, as we are faced with the Supreme Court's disappointing decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission earlier this year. In a 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned years of congressional work to limit corporate spending and corruption in the political arena. As a result, corporations and labor unions are now free to spend unlimited dollars from their general funds to make independent expenditures at any time during an election cycle, including directly calling for the election or defeat of a candidate. This ruling will have far-reaching implications for the electoral system on a Federal, State, and local level. In his well-reasoned dissent, Justice Stevens noted: Lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potentially deleterious effects of corporate spending in local and national races.
