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ISSUES

Corporations Are Not People

Don't Let Their Money Drown Out My Voice!

The Supreme Court is considering setting aside 100 years of precedent with a ruling that would dramatically INCREASE the amount of corporate money in politics and elections.

Please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (sample below), before our justices get too far down the wrong path.

 

Sample letter
Corporations Are Not People, So Don't Let Their Money Drown Out My Voice!

As someone who believes strongly in civic participation, the idea that a corporation — which the Supreme Court has called an "artificial entity," and that is made up of individual shareholders and employees with different political beliefs — could be allowed to spend directly from its massive corporate treasury on ads for or against a candidate is truly frightening.

A corporation is not, nor has it ever been, a person with voting rights. Corporations are not our neighbors, they cannot get married, they cannot die, and a corporation has never been a constituent member of "We the People."

However, a decision in favor of the plaintiff in Citizen's United vs. the Federal Election Commission — the controversial case that was reheard in Washington on September 9th — would allow corporations to use their immense wealth to loudly promote or attack candidates through unlimited expenditures on ads.

Barack Obama sailed into Washington on a wave of change, buoyed by small donations he received from millions of American citizens. To suddenly decide that those voices should be drowned out by the massive accumulated money of a single "corporate person," runs counter to the very ideals of a representative democracy.

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New Mexico Public Interest Research Group: PO Box 40173, Albuquerque, NM 87196-0713