Citizens United Decision Weathers 10 Years of Controversy

A decade after the Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision, which ushered in the era of super PACs and unlimited donations, the fight over the contentious ruling shows no signs of easing…. End Citizens United has been advocating for H.R. 1, the Democrats' wide-ranging bill that passed the House in March but was not taken up by the GOP Senate. The bill includes proposals for electoral reforms and more campaign finance transparency…. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), chairman of the Democracy Reform Task Force that is behind H.R. 1, called 10 years of Citizens United a “very sober” anniversary at a press conference last Tuesday. “It’s where this arrogance began on the part of Super PACs and the super wealthy armed with this idea somehow that corporations are people, money is speech. They decided that they were going to take over American politics,” he said. Sarbanes also pointed to the many Democratic candidates who have had to drop out of the 2020 race, while billionaire candidates have stayed in. If H.R. 1 passed, Sarbanes said, that would change. “The Michael Bloombergs, anybody who’s running whose got a lot of money, it comes out in the wash. It will be balanced,” he said.