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January 28, 2010

Dems Seek to Undo Supreme Court Ruling on Corporate Electioneering
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And Democrats are gearing up to try to counter the Supreme Court’s
ruling that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to elect
and defeat candidates. In a five-to-four decision, the Court overturned
century-old restrictions on corporations, unions and other interest
groups from using their vast treasuries to advocate for a specific
candidate. Speaking on the House floor, Democratic Congress member Donna
Edwards of Maryland said she’ll introduce a constitutional amendment to
revoke the Supreme Court ruling.

Rep. Donna Edwards: “The American people already believe that corporate
special interests and their lobbyists run the show around here. I mean,
the halls are crawling with them. But that’s not enough. Now the Court
says to the big banks, to the drug companies, to the insurance
companies, ‘Hey, all bets are off, and it’s open season. Our elections
are for sale.’ A law won’t fix this; we have to fix it in the
Constitution. So today I’ll introduce a constitutional amendment so that
we, the people, can take back our elections and our democracy. This is
not the People’s House Incorporated. We are the people. It’s our house,
it’s our Constitution, and it’s our elections. And we plan to take it
back from the United States Supreme Court.”

In his state of the union address, President Obama renewed his criticism
of the Supreme Court ruling, saying he hopes Congress passes legislation
“that helps to right this wrong.”



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