via Erin Fuchs, Business Insider
A whopping 75 percent of Montana’s voters approved an initiative Tuesday stating corporations are not people.
Montana voters specifically said “corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights because they are not human beings,” Courthouse News Service reported.
The measure was a stinging rebuke to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to do away with the state’s campaign-finance limits.
In its June ruling, the Supreme Court essentially affirmed its divisive 2010 decision in Citizens United finding federal campaign finance limits interfered with corporations’ “free speech” rights.
Montana’s “corporations aren’t people, too” measure orders its reps in Congress to propose a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
In reality, it’s a huge long shot that the state’s representatives will be able to amend the Constitution, Jess Bravin points out in the Wall Street Journal. For that to happen, two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses of Congress would have to sign off and then three-fourths of the states would have to adopt the change.
But the measure shows Montanans aren’t just going to let Citizens United go.
Given the fact that Barack Obama just won the chance to make the Supreme Court more liberal, the justices might just pay attention to the state’s little-noticed initiative.
Filed under: 2012 ELECTION, CORPORATE GOOD & GREED, FIRST AMENDMENT, MONTANA, POLITICS, SUPREME COURT, THE ISSUES, THE STATE OF STATES, VOTING Tagged: Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Citizens United, Congress, Constitutional Amendment, Constitutional Rights, Corporate Personhood, Corporations Aren't People Too, First Amendment, Free Speech, Initiative, Montana, Representatives, SCOTUS, supreme court, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, United States Supreme Court, Vote, Voters
