Dear Senator Lieu,
The Culver City Democratic Club has been active in local, state and national politics since 1953. We are pleased to inform you that we SUPPORT SB 1272, which would place an Advisory Measure before the People of California in November 2014, calling on the US Congress to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and “all applicable judicial precedents” including the recent decision in McCutcheon v. FEC, by drafting, passing, and returning to the states for ratification an amendment or amendments clearly stating that We The People have the right to regulate and/or limit spending on elections and that the rights and privileges granted by the US Constitution are the rights of natural persons only.
The Supreme Court’s misapplication of the 1st Amendment, equating money with “free speech” and asserting that incorporated entities should benefit from 1st Amendment rights and protections, undermines the fundamental one person one vote precept of our democracy and sets us on a course where elections will be auctions, sold to the highest bidder, rather than the free and fair expressions of the will the voters.
If our democratic republic and system of representative government is to survive, these egregiously damaging rulings must be overturned. The only way that can be accomplished, barring the unlikely event that the Court reverses itself, is through the amendment process afforded us by the US Constitution.
By placing SB 1272, The Overturn Citizens United Act, on the statewide ballot, giving all Californians the opportunity to directly respond to these disastrous rulings, the California Legislature can lead the country, once again, in the national discussion we must have now.
Thank you for introducing SB 1272, The Overturn Citizens United Act and add the Culver City Democratic Club to your list of the bill’s supporters.