A revised and updated edition of the definitive guide to overturning Citizens United. Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that the rights of things—money and corporations—matter more than the rights of people, America has faced a crisis of democracy. In this timely and thoroughly updated second edition, Jeff Clements describes the strange history of this bizarre ruling, its ongoing destructive effects, and the growing movement to reverse it.
He includes a new chapter, “Do Something!,” showing how—state by state and community by community—Americans are using creative strategies and tools to renew democracy and curb unbalanced corporate power. Since the first edition, sixteen states, one-hundred-sixty members of Congress, and five hundred cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and the list is growing. This is a fight we can win!
“More relevant than ever, this updated edition of
Corporations Are Not People chronicles the remarkably vibrant, nationwide grassroots movement to ‘get money out and voters in.’” —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher,
The Nation
The Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that corporations are people eliminated campaign finance restrictions and dramatically increased corporate power. Attorney and activist Jeffrey Clements shows how you can fight back.
In this new edition, he describes the growing movement to reverse the ruling - since the first edition 16 states, 160 Congress people, and 500 cities and towns have called for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. But at the same time he shows the ongoing destructive effects of the ruling - for example, 5% of the population contributed $7 billion in the 2012 Presidential election, and Chevron spent 1.2 million to influence a single local election in a city of 100,000 people.
Clements explains the strange history of how the Supreme Court came to embrace a concept that flies in the face of, not only all common sense, but most of American legal history as well. He shows how unfettered corporate rights will impact public health, energy policy, the environment, and the justice system. And, even more importantly, he provides solutions: the text of a Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United, and a new chapter, Do Something!, that tells stories of the people leading the movement. His book provides tools every American can use to overturn corporate personhood state by state and community by community.
