Led by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, 11 state attorneys general yesterday issued a letter to Congress calling on members of both parties to overturn the disastrous Citizens United decision. Executive director of Free Speech for People (who is coordinating the effort) John Bonifaz wrote in a press release that the letter marked “an important new milestone in the movement to reclaim our democracy.”
This newest plot point in the Citizens United saga comes at a time when the ‘Super PAC’ has dominated the electoral discussion. Mitt Romney’s Restore Our Future has been the center of attention (which apparently gets half of its donations from the financial industry); Colbert won a Peabody for founding his own; and even web aggregator Reddit crowd-sourced a billboard with funds from their homegrown Super PAC.
Jeff Clements, constitutional lawyer and author of Corporations Are Not People, captures the gravity of the moment:
When the history is written on this amendment movement, it will record that these eleven state attorneys general stood up early to defend our democracy and to ensure that people, not corporations, govern in America. We are proud to stand with them and the millions of people across this nation who want our democracy back.
