Entire Massachusetts Congressional Delegation Sponsors Democracy Amendments!
Entire Massachusetts Congressional Delegation Sponsors Democracy Amendments!
On Tuesday November 12 representatives from Common Cause Massachusetts, Move to Amend, MASSPIRG, Better Future Project, MassVOTE, AFL-CIO Massachusetts, and State Senator Jamie Eldridge met with Senator Warren’s staff to urge action on a strong democracy amendment. We delivered over 6,000 petition signaturesand a letter signed by 30 citizen action organizations in Massachusetts.
Just one week later Senator Elizabeth Warren joined the rest of the Massachusetts congressional delegation in cosponsoring a strong democracy amendment to protect our elections and policymaking from the undue influence of money in politics. A constitutional amendment is necessary to restore and protect our democracy after a long series of Supreme Court decisions, culminating in Citizens United v. FEC (2010), have left Congress and state legislatures helpless in the fight to rein in big money’s iron grip on the electoral process and to resist corporate abuse. Specifically, Senator Warren cosponsored SJ.RES.19, a constitutional amendment filed by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.
The same letter was also issued to Senator Markey and we plan to deliver the petition signatures to him at a meeting next week. Senator Markey cosponsored Udall’s amendment at the end of October.
Common Cause applauds the Senators’ swift action on this important issue. Please take a second to thank both Senator Markey and Warren for cosponsoring a strong democracy amendment by sending a tweet.
We look forward to working with both Senators to cosponsor a democracy amendment that addresses the issue of corporate constitutional rights, another troubling result of Citizens United and previous court decisions that has allowed corporations to circumvent laws to protect our health, safety, environment, and democracy.
In the House, the eight current members have already filed or cosponsored democracy amendments that cover both the issues of money in politics and corporate constitutional rights. The Democratic candidate, Katherine Clark, for the remaining Congressional seat is on record in support of a constitutional amendment.
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