Rep. Johnson: Get Secret Corporate Money Out of Politics

Statement

Today, House Judiciary Committee member Hank Johnson (GA-04) released the following statement on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission decision.

"An activist Supreme Court, misusing its authority by legislating policy from the bench, ignored decades of legal precedent when it ruled in 2010 that corporations have the same constitutional right of free speech as people.

In doing so, the Court opened the floodgates for unlimited, unregulated and undisclosed secret corporate spending to influence the outcome of elections -- local, state and federal -- throughout America. Citizens United also enabled the use of foreign corporate money for the same purpose. The effect of this devastating decision has been to enable corporate money to dictate public policy so that it favors wealthy business interests, and millionaires and billionaires, over the interests of working people.

I fully support legislative efforts to return control of the political process back to the people. That is why I cosponsored H.J. Res 90, the OCCUPIED Amendment: Outlawing Corporate Campaign Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy, which would overturn Citizens United, return campaign finance regulation to the government and outlaw corporation campaign spending.

Powerful special interests and their lobbyists should not be able to drown out the voices of the American people and sell our Democracy to the highest bidder."

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