Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi, Unsplash
Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi, Unsplash
It may be that Hawaii and Montana are showing the rest of states the way to get at least some of the dark money flood out of politics.
Two states, Hawaii and Montana have now passed statutes that directly attack the 2010 Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court.
Hawaii passed its bill, Act 11, through the legislature and Montana voters passed ballot Initiative 194 by a staggering 65 percent. So we have a red state and a blue state both passing similar constraints against unlimited corporate dark money in political campaigns. And the people who have been dominating political spending since 2010 are quite a bit freaked out at this turn of events.
The laws in Hawaii and Montana even have some similarities in wording:
…artificial persons created under state law possess only those powers that are necessary or convenient to carry out lawful business and organizational purposes, and that those powers do not include the power to spend money or contribute anything of value to influence elections or ballot measures… Hawaii Act 11.
Except as expressly provided by law for political committees, the state of Montana does not extend political spending power to an artificial person, and an artificial person subject to [sections 1 through 10] does not possess any legal capacity to expend money or anything of value to support or oppose the outcome of a vote of the electorate. Montana Plan, Initiative 194
Both laws were immediately challenged in court on “free speech” grounds by seemingly innocuous-sounding foundations. A suit against Montana’s law was filed 18 minutes before AP even announced that Initiative 194 had passed. The primary party suing to block I-194 is the Frontier Institute. A quick look at who funds this group and you immediately find Donors Trust aka Koch Industries and others and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The Bradley Foundation contributed upwards of $52 million to the development of Project 2025, which if course is the blueprint for the destruction of our Democracy. Of course Koch interests were also involved with that effort.
Hawaii’s law was challenged by Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, another Koch funded group, and the US Chamber of Commerce, already widely known for emphasizing the interests of big corporations.
Countering Citizens United
Congress can’t just reverse the Citizens United Decision by direct legislation. It can however put forth a Constitutional Amendment to reverse it. In fact that process was begun. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania introduced such a proposed Amendment last year. But as we know the process of getting a Constitutional Amendment passed and fully ratified is a years-long process.
It may be that Hawaii and Montana are showing the rest of states the way to get at least some of the dark money flood out of politics. Getting it done 48 more times could be a faster route than getting an Amendment through.
One way to speed up the process might be to emulate the pattern used by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. For those unfamiliar, according to Wikipedia ALEC brings together state lawmakers and corporate/private-sector members in task forces to draft “model bills” that legislators can adapt and introduce in their respective statehouses. Factually it is heavily influenced by the same conservative donor groups that backed Citizens United, Project 2025 and other nefarious political activities.
ALEC has been effective in packaging legislation for state and even local governments. So utilizing their pattern to help restore and uphold the Constitutional order would be quite fitting.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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