Senate Candidates:  Are You Ready to Fix Citizens United?

Reversing Citizens United and establishing publicly funded elections are essential reforms if we, the citizens, are going to regain political power in our country.

The quickest way to fix Citizens United is for the next President to appoint a Supreme Court justice who will vote to overturn Citizens United.  Four of the current Justices are near or over 80 years old and it is extremely likely that the next President will appoint at least one new Justice and one may be enough to reverse the 5-4 Citizens United decision.

Presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders have both posted statements on their websites in support of publicly funded elections and about their commitment to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Citizens United.  (See statements below.)

The United States Senate also has an extremely important role in the appointment of Justices to the Supreme Court.  So, we really need to see website statements by our Pennsylvania Senate candidates, too!   

Katie McGinty, John Fetterman,  Joe Sestak, and Pat Toomey, as of today (1/14/16), have not posted any statements about ending money-in-politics corruption on the “Issues” page of their websites.

Citizens want to know:

1. Will each of them require Supreme Court nominees who seek their confirmation vote to commit to overturning the Citizens United decision?

2.  Will each of them vote to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United?

3.  Will each join with the Presidential candidates and support publicly funded elections for Congress and President?

These presidential candidates recognize the importance of ending legalized corruption in our democracy and they have the courage to say so.  Do our Senate candidates?

We really need to see each of them state their commitments on the “Issues” pages of their campaign websites.

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From Sanders’ website:

AS PRESIDENT, I WILL:

Only appoint Supreme Court justices who will make it a priority to overturn Citizens United and who understand that corruption in politics means more than just quid pro quo.

Fight to pass a constitutional amendment making it clear that Congress and the states have the power to regulate money in elections. I have been a proud sponsor and leading champion of such an amendment in the Senate.

Fight for a publicly financed, transparent system of campaign financing that amplifies small donations, along the lines of the Fair Elections Now Act that I have been pleased to co-sponsor, and an effective public financing system for president.

From Clinton’s website:

Overturn Citizens United. Hillary will appoint Supreme Court justices who value the right to vote over the right of billionaires to buy elections. She’ll push for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United in order to restore the role of everyday voters in elections.

Amplify the voices of everyday Americans. Hillary will establish a small-donor matching system for presidential and congressional elections to incentivize small donors to participate in elections, and encourage candidates to spend more time engaging a representative cross-section of voters.