FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE INC
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Mission Statement
Free Speech For People works to renew our democracy and our United States Constitution for we, the people. Since our founding on the day of the Citizens United ruling in January 2010, Free Speech For People has led the movement to overturn that ruling and reclaim our democracy. We advance this mission with the following innovative, effective, and complementary strategies: • We catalyze and help lead the movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s rulings in Citizens United v. FEC and Buckley v. Valeo, and the doctrines underlying those rulings; • We engage in legal advocacy to advance a new jurisprudence on money in politics and to confront the misuse of the U.S. Constitution to claim corporate exemptions from our laws; • We develop and advocate for model laws and other tools to challenge big money in politics and to make corporations responsible and accountable to the public.
About This Cause
On January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. FEC, eliminated critical protections for people by allowing corporations unprecedented influence in the political process. The ruling exacerbates the inequality of our current campaign finance system in which big money forces are allowed to override the political will of the people and effectively drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. And, with its 2014 ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court struck down aggregate limits on individual contributions to political candidates, thus allowing the wealthiest few to dominate our elections and government. The Citizens United ruling also introduced the most extreme extension yet of a fabricated corporate rights doctrine that has placed corporations over people. Corporations have used this fabricated doctrine to challenge Missourians working to promote sustainable energy, workers in Los Angeles and Seattle calling for a living wage, and consumers advocating for the labeling of genetically modified foods, among many other increasingly aggressive attacks on public interest laws. In doing so, they have threatened the fundamental promise of American government: of, by, and for the people. Free Speech For People envisions a democratic process in which all people. Our cause is the preservation of constitutional democracy in America and of our human Constitutional rights. Free Speech For People uniquely delivers solutions based on the root cause of our current democracy crisis. We attack the problem: the fabrication of a twisted Constitutional doctrine that elevates corporations above human beings and money above the right to political equality for all. We deliver the solution: a two-pronged strategy that builds the necessary Constitutional foundation for an effective and just American democracy. Free Speech For People is building that foundation with innovative, effective legal strategies and with a powerful, grassroots Constitutional amendment campaign. This two-pronged strategy is a unique and powerful driver to realize the vision of Free Speech For People and the best hopes of the nation: our rights to equal representation and equal participation in governing ourselves, and Constitutional rights that secure human liberty, rather than corporate privilege. The implications and consequences of the Supreme Court’s rulings in Citizens United and related cases go well beyond campaign finance rules or policy differences. They go to the heart of whether our Constitution secures equal rights of human beings, or elevates powerful corporations and a wealthy few to a privileged place in our elections and political decision-making. With Citizens United, the Supreme Court swept away a century of precedent barring corporate money in our elections, holding that corporations are people with political speech rights under the First Amendment. The ruling has unleashed unlimited corporate spending in our elections and has exacerbated the inequality of our current campaign finance system. The ruling also marked the most extreme extension yet of a fabricated doctrine which assigns corporations with the rights of human beings under the United States Constitution. Following the Citizens United ruling, corporations have increasingly used this doctrine to try to strike down public interest laws across the country, undermining the fundamental promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people. Since 2010, the boldness of Free Speech For People has set an example for the Democracy movement. The organization has built an effective campaign for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to overturn Citizens United and the Court’s 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo and to reclaim our democracy. The organization has also built an impressive Legal Advocacy Program which is working in the courts and in the broader legal community to advance a new jurisprudence on money in politics and American self-government. LEGAL ADVOCACY Free Speech For People’s Legal Advocacy Program, supported by an impressive Legal Advisory Committee, engages in legal advocacy, public education, and organizing to challenge in the courts the US Supreme Court’s rulings in Citizens United v. FEC, McCutcheon v. FEC, and Buckley v. Valeo and the legal doctrines underlying those rulings. Through our work employing cutting-edge legal strategies, pressing for model legislation, and enlisting new scholarship, Free Speech For People is a leading force in the courts and in the legal community for advancing a new jurisprudence on money in politics and American self-government and serves as a critical legal resource for the growing movement in the United States to reclaim our democracy. In the short-term, we aim, via our Legal Advocacy Program, to create building blocks for a new jurisprudence on money in politics and American self-government. Such building blocks include: judicial rulings at the federal and state court level which chip away at the doctrines underlying the Citizens United and Buckley decisions; judicial dissents which challenge such doctrines; academic scholarship which advances new arguments for overturning the doctrines; special convenings which broaden the support in the legal community for a new jurisprudence; the passage of model laws which lead to new test cases challenging the Citizens United and Buckley doctrines; and the continued progress of a constitutional amendment movement grounded in legal arguments as to why these doctrines must be overturned. In the long-term, our objective with our Legal Advocacy Program is to establish a new jurisprudence for our democracy consistent with America’s promises of self-government and political equality for all. Such a jurisprudence would be propelled by a 28th Amendment to the Constitution and by judicial recognition that the Citizens United and Buckley doctrines are contrary to basic constitutional principles. CAMPAIGN FOR A 28TH AMENDMENT The constitutional amendment movement has gained powerful momentum over the past five years. In September 2014, fifty-four members of the United States Senate voted to support the Democracy For All Amendment, which would overturn Citizens United, McCutcheon, and Buckley, and would allow for overall campaign spending limits in our elections. Free Speech For People, along with our allies, worked closely with the Senate Judiciary Committee and with key Senate offices in the months leading up to this historic vote. The Senate vote marked an important new milestone for this movement and reflected the power of local and statewide organizing since the Citizens United ruling which has led to 17 states and more than 675 cities and towns passing resolutions calling for an amendment. The victories to date of the amendment campaign demonstrate the deepening outrage of voters across the political spectrum with the current campaign finance system, and the broad appeal of the call for an amendment. In the short-term, Free Speech For People aims to build a transpartisan grassroots movement to reclaim our democracy by passing amendment resolutions at the local, state, and federal level. In the long term, Free Speech For People's Campaign for a 28th Amendment seeks for Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a 28th amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC to restore democracy to the people. Free Speech For People is a 501(c)(3) organization. To learn more about how you can support our work, please visit our website or contact us at contact@freespeechforpeople.org