Supreme Court

-by: Mike Ludwig

February 15, 2012- Fifty organizations presented letters to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Tuesday requesting hearings this year on the need to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates for unlimited independent campaign spending and gave rise to the infamous Super PAC.

So far in the 112th Congress, lawmakers have introduced 13 constitutional amendment resolutions of varying scope, and dozens more have been introduced in state legislatures. Hearings in the Judiciary Committees would be the next step in moving Congress toward proposing an amendment.

The letter comes just weeks after 350 events, protests and teach-ins in communities across the country gave shape to a mass movement to overturn Citizens United.

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-By Dennis Kucinich & Russell Simmons

January 21, 2012- This is not a progressive issue or a conservative issue. This is not a Tea Party issue or a liberal issue. This is an American issue. Money is destroying our politics and our political system. The signs are everywhere. A "super PAC" supporting Mitt Romney spent $3.5 million to knock Newt Gingrich out of the lead in Iowa. A super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich is spending a greater amount of money to return the favor to Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Our electoral system has become such a joke that two late-night comedians are now actually participating in it and are generating great laughter just by demonstrating how it operates.

In the past, Congress has made two bipartisan efforts to control the impact of money on our elections, first in the early 1970s and more recently with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as "McCain-Feingold." Both of these laws tried to restrict the influence of money on our elections. But after each of these efforts, the Supreme Court kicked down the door and allowed campaign money to flow more freely.

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