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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2010
12:16 PM

CONTACT: US PIRG

Lisa Gilbert, Democracy Advocate
Office: 202-546-9707 X 368

Citizens United Opinion Widens Corporate 'Personhood' Rights

WASHINGTON - January 21 - Today's Supreme Court decision in Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission will significantly expand the role that the most powerful corporations play in election financing. (Click here to download a PDF of the decision.)

In a shocking burst of judicial activism, the Supreme Court decided that corporations should be treated in the same manner as ordinary citizens and be allowed to spend the massive amounts of money they accumulate on direct attack ads for or against Members of Congress.

 "This egregious decision turns back the clock on over 60 years of precedent," said Lisa Gilbert, Democracy Advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

"A corporation is not, nor has it ever been, a person with voting rights. Corporations are not your neighbors, they cannot get married, they cannot die, and a corporation is not part of "We the People," she added. "It is essential that we fix this misstep by the courts, before we see the landscape of elections financing washed away in a raging flashflood of corporate money."

Lifting the ban on corporate money could further diminish the public voice in a system that already favors monied special interests, and will certainly lessen the public trust in our officials.

U.S. PIRG is working in concert with the White House and Senate and House Leadership to help move a legislative fix to slam shut the floodgates that today's decision has opened.

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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country, we take on the special interests on issues, such as product safety,political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights,where these interests stand in the way of reform and progress.
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