Citizens United Anniversary Stimulates Big Action around the U.S.

News: Citizens United, the name that represents that horrible decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to designate corporations as people had its anniversary yesterday. In honor of that, citizens all around the U.S. got up and voiced their opinion about the illegality and senselessness of that 2010 Supreme Court decision.

“On the second anniversary of the much-despised Citizens United ruling, protesters gathered at the Supreme Court and unfurled a large banner reading ‘U.S. Supreme Koch’ to protest the undue influence that far-right special interests and billionaires like the Koch brothers wield over the Court and U.S. politics,” for example (video above).

“The Kochs and their kind are engaged in a hostile corporate takeover of our nation’s political system,” said John Sellers, co-founder of The Other 98%. “We’ve come to the scene of the crime today – the U.S. Supreme Court – to tell the justices exactly what we think of the infamous Citizens United ruling that made that takeover possible.”

Why this is important: Due to the Citizens United ruling, corporations can now influence U.S. political campaigns and elections like never before. If you thought your politicians were bought before (well, for the most part, they were), things are A LOT worse now. Without getting this decision reversed, your country is in the hands of mega-corporations, not you (sorry).

More from the other 98%: “Two years ago, the Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates to secretive and unlimited corporate political contributions and gave a major boost to the rapidly expanding political empire of David and Charles Koch and those of other millionaires and billionaires.”

“The Supreme Court has undermined government of, by and for the actual people by defining corporations as people and money as speech,” said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, the largest grassroots health care advocacy organization.“The Citizens United ruling has been a disaster for the middle class, which is under constant assault in Congress and in the Supreme Court by Republicans accountable only to big corporations and the wealthy. It’s crucial that the justices be independent of corporate influences when they rule on matters like the health care case, which will forever affect health insurance consumers and 100 million people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.”

Opportunities for action: Sign this petition from Corporate Accountability International asking that policy-makers pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. FEC. Also, there are Citizens United actions around the country still planned—join one!

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