Corporate Accountability

Wal-Mart is running an illegal scheme to prod employees into contributing to its political action committee, circumventing a federal law that bars companies from putting corporate funds into political campaigns, Public Citizen, Common Cause and two Wal-Mart employees and shareholders charged today.

Opponents of the Democracy for All amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore limits on special interest campaign spending argue that the amendment will “limit speech.” That’s wrong. It will lift the voices of millions who are facing student loan debt by giving them a more equal say in our political system and limit the influence of outside special interests seeking to profit their debt.

Earlier today, representatives of the Corporate Reform Coalition conducted a press conference outside the SEC to urge the agency to move swiftly on a proposed rule requiring corporations to disclose their political spending. A petition requesting this rulemaking was filed in 2011 by a bi-partisan committee of leading law professors. The rulemaking was placed on the agency’s agenda by former SEC Chair Mary Schapiro in 2013, but was removed by Chair Mary Jo White earlier this year, sparking outrage among investors and the public.

In a PR Watch article posted on Monday, Brendan Fischer and Nick Surgey detail the immense power of the industrialists Charles and David Koch, the brothers who’ve become synonymous with big money in politics . The post explores how the brothers are able to legally give millions to political organizations every year.

The Supreme Court is supposed to protect everyone’s rights, interpreting our laws so that each person is valued equally. But in Hobby Lobby and other corporate cases, the Court seems to be granting special rights and privileges to corporations.