People For the American Way, Public Citizen Launch Constitutional Amendment Pledge Campaign to Undo Citizens United

People For the American Way and Public Citizen
today announced a
campaign calling on candidates for Congress to pledge to support an
amendment
to the Constitution to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's dangerous
decision in Citizens United v.
Federal
Election Commission. The decision, which allows corporations
to
spend unlimited money from their corporate treasuries to support or
defeat a
candidate, undercuts the First Amendment and gives corporations enormous
influence in elections.

"The Supreme Court ignored some obvious
realities in its Citizens United
decision," said
Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "First, corporations are
not people. Second, democracy is rule by the people. And third,
unlimited
election expenditures by corporations are not compatible with democracy.
We are
asking candidates for Congress to make a simple pledge: Commit to rescue
our
democracy from corporate control by supporting a constitutional
amendment to
overturn the Citizens United decision."

Added Michael B. Keegan, president of People
For the American Way,
"Legislation to mitigate the damage done by Citizens United is vitally important, but in order
to fully
repair the damage done, we need to amend the Constitution. This is a
golden opportunity for candidates to tell us all whose side they're on:
Do they stand with the American people or with big corporations?"

The two groups are asking all candidates for
the House of
Representatives and Senate to sign a pledge promising to support an
amendment
to restore democracy to our system. The pledge reads:

"The Supreme Court's
flawed decision
allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence election
outcomes
endangers our democracy and threatens to drown out the voices of
individual
citizens. I pledge to protect America
from unlimited corporate spending on our elections by supporting a
Constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision giving
corporations the same First Amendment rights as people."

According to recent polling by PFAW, 77 percent
of voters think
Congress should support an amendment to limit the amount U.S.
corporations can spend to influence elections, and 74 percent say that
they
would be more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who pledged to
support such an amendment. Opposition to Citizens
United and support for an amendment cuts across partisan and
ideological divisions, and includes strong majorities of Democrats and
Republicans alike.