We the undersigned join the Huntsville Coalition for Democracy in supporting Councilman Bill Kling's Resolution No. 12-567 Substitute "A" and urge the remaining Council members to pass this resolution denouncing the Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Citizens United vs. FEC and supporting legislative action to counter unlimited corporate spending in elections.
Why is this important?
In January 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission (FEC) that declared corporations to be equivalent to people and money equivalent to speech, opening the door to unlimited corporate spending in elections on an unprecedented scale. This decision was a disaster for American democracy. The purpose of this petition is to urge the Huntsville City Council to pass Bill Kling’s proposed resolution expressing Huntsville’s support of a constitutional amendment or other legal or judicial action that would effectively reverse the Supreme Court’s decision, thereby limiting corporate influence and restoring democracy in our elections.
This has become a unifying issue among Americans. The Washington Post has reported that 80% of voters aware of the Citizens United ruling feel that unlimited corporate spending is having a powerful coercive impact on the outcome of elections. A 2012 poll by Pew Research Center (PRC) revealed that more than two out of three (67%) of those polled, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, felt that the ruling has had a significantly negative effect on the political process.
The Supreme Court’s decision allows the free speech rights of a corporation to dilute and outweigh the free speech rights of ordinary citizens. Given the gridlock in Washington, it falls to we the people to push our local government to join the fight in overturning this decision.
