The conversation about the response to Citizens United is still alive in this legislative session. Both Senate 772, the resolution to overturn Citizens United, and Senate 304, which would strengthen disclosure requirements, have been included in extension orders. This permits the Election Laws Committee to continue to consider them beyond the March deadline for bill reporting.
As background to the discussion about Citizens United and campaign spending limits, my committee counsel, Anne Johnson, has prepared a useful summary of the current law.
- Click here for her summary of the current law
- Click here for my discussion of Citizens United.
- Click here follow the general thread about Citizens United.
At 7PM on Tuesday, May 15, in Arlington, there will be a discussion sponsored by Common Cause on these issues. Check back here for full details which we will post when they become available.
Anne’s cheat sheet is very good. Please thank her for doing it. I will tell others abput it.
I’ve already mentioned this here, but I met someone at a conference about holding a conference to amend the US constitution (organized by Larry Lessig and the Tea Party) who handed me a paper she had written to discuss Citizens United v. FEC, which summarizes how political committees work, what they may and may not do, and court decisions on election law. She has revised it and given me permission to distribute it. Her name is E.W. Rassweiler and the paper is called Corporate Control over Elections. Find it here:
maxentropyproductions.net/papers/Corporate Control Over Elections 1-12.pdf
She has since put it online: http://rebuilddemocracy.tumblr.com/introduction
It’s more than most people care to know, but it’s all there if you care.
I hope S772 and S304 move along nicely. What’s been slowing them down?
This is the time of the session (last 3 months), when lots of things finally happen. Most bills have already been “put to study”, a/k/a “killed”, but these two bills are still in the mix of things that could happen at the end of the session.
Common Cause is calling for support/cosponsorship of Sen. Eldridge’s budget amendment #149 to Disclose Corporate Political Spending.
Yeah, the amendment is basically the same as Senate bill 304. I support this legislation for sure, but it is better to have it go through as a bill, not a budget amendment. Better vetting process when people can focus on it. In the budget a million other things are happening.