{"id":9784,"date":"2019-02-05T19:50:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T19:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9784"},"modified":"2019-02-05T19:50:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T19:50:56","slug":"after-nine-years-watchdogs-still-push-to-overturn-citizens-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9784","title":{"rendered":"After Nine Years, Watchdogs Still Push to Overturn Citizens United"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Since the Citizens United court decision nine years ago, watchdog groups have seen an \u201cexplosion\u201d of anonymous, so-called \u201cdark money\u201d flooding into American politics. Photo: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DALLAS \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s been nine years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Citizens United decision,
\nand grassroots groups in Texas and across the nation are still working to limit the influence of money in politics.<\/p>\n

David Jones, president of the advocacy group Clean Elections Texas, says the ruling has opened up the floodgates for so-called dark money, anonymous and unlimited contributions made through third-party groups, to tilt U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the people who get elected are primarily elected because their campaigns are financed by a very narrow group of extremely wealthy people, not everyone is represented,\u201d he states. \u201cAnd so, it is a fundamental issue that goes to the core of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2010 Supreme Court decision, citing previous rulings, held that political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and said the government cannot limit corporations from spending money to influence election outcomes.<\/p>\n

Overturning the high court\u2019s ruling would require a constitutional amendment. And Jones\u2019 group and others are part of a 50-state campaign to do just that.<\/p>\n

The new Democratic Party leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives chose the For the People Act as the first piece of legislation the body would take up and pass.<\/p>\n

It looks unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate, and even less likely to receive the signature of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

But Adam Smith, strategic partnerships director for the group End Citizens United, says it\u2019s a once-in-a-generation, anti-corruption package \u2013 in part because of its campaign finance rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like requiring dark-money groups to disclose their donors, matching small donations with public funds \u2013 empowering those small donors,\u201d he points out. \u201cAnd it also restructures the Federal Election Commission, so that there\u2019s really enforcement and accountability for people who break campaign finance laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0For The People Act<\/a>\u00a0also includes provisions to make it easier to vote and to prevent voter suppression. And it tightens ethics rules for officeholders, requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns and forbidding members of Congress from serving on corporate boards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas DALLAS \u2013\u00a0It\u2019s been nine years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Citizens United decision, and grassroots groups in Texas and across the nation are still working to limit the influence of money in politics. David Jones, president of the advocacy group Clean Elections Texas, says the ruling has opened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9786,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9784\/revisions\/9786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}