New York Daily News (Op-Ed): After Citizens United, an awakening

Ten years ago, “Citizens United” became shorthand for everything that’s wrong with our campaign finance system.

It wasn’t the first Supreme Court case to define spending money as speech. And it wasn’t the last Supreme Court decision to make new loopholes in campaign finance laws. But it was a watershed moment, establishing the supposed principle that the ability of corporations to spend money to influence elections was unlimited.

We sense that our government doesn’t really belong to the people anymore. We see special interests getting tax breaks, bailout help and regulations repealed. We see lots of arguing in Washington, but not much getting done.

In the past decade, Citizens United has come to symbolize not just the deluge of money in our elections, but also voters’ frustration at not being heard by their elected officials. Polling shows that only 17% of us believe our political parties and politicians “care about people like me.” The rest of us are feeling disenfranchised. Only 20% of us are “satisfied” with our nation’s campaign finance laws; the rest of us want change.

New Yorkers are leading the way to a post-Citizens United future. For decades, we’ve supported public funding of campaigns to counterbalance big money corruption.

Fourteen months ago, New York City voters okayed improvements to our public funding system. It’s worked for decades — but now it’s better. We got lower contribution limits and a higher public match, supported by more than 80% of voters. That was citizen activism at work.

It was citizen activism that also pushed our state Legislature to address persistent campaign finance problems. Instead, our representatives ducked and created a commission to do their work for them. That delegation of legislative powers led to a questionable result: an untried, complicated system, with contribution limits that are too high, that won’t go into effect for years. Now citizens will have to step up and make sure the new system is fixed.

Four years after Citizens United, it seemed we might have a solution to the problems it and other decisions unleashed. Congress was considering a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the precedent. Here’s what it said:

“To advance democratic self-government and political equality, and to protect the integrity of government and the electoral process, Congress and the States may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.

“Congress and the States shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation, and may distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.

“Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress or the States the power to abridge the freedom of the press.”

An overwhelming bipartisan vote ended a filibuster on the measure, and it looked ready to pass the U.S. Senate. Then something happened: 25 senators switched their votes, the amendment was blocked — and it hasn’t moved since.

In 2016, our state Legislature called on Congress to pass the amendment. New York is one of 20 states so far where citizens have pressured their Legislatures to go on record supporting the amendment. Polling shows 75% of Americans support the amendment, including 66% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats.

But it still hasn’t passed.

The fact that it’s blocked in the Senate shows everything that’s wrong with the current system. We’ve had a full decade of reckoning since the Citizens United decision. As part of our ongoing efforts to save our constitutional system, it’s time to amend the Constitution, overturn the Supreme Court precedent and bring our politics back in line with our American ideals.

Lerner is executive director of Common Cause New York.