A Dozen Wisconsin Communities Challenge Corporate Personhood With Vote to Overturn Citizens United

Wisconsin residents in 12 communities will vote next week on whether to amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United, end corporate personhood, and get big money out of politics.

In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court found that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections.

In Milwaukee County, Dunn County, Green Bay, Appleton, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Ripon, Stoughton, Oregon, Wausau, and the Village of Park Ridge, voters will cast their ballots on a proposed amendment that would essentially reverse the Court’s 2010 decision by stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech.

The referenda “are an expression of the will of local people,” Kaja Rebane, co-chair of the Wisconsin Move to Amend network, told Common Dreams. It was just over three years ago that Madison and Dane County became the first municipalities in the country to pass ballot measures aimed at abolishing corporate personhood. “At that time, I don’t think any of us had any idea that it would spread as quickly as it has,” Rebane said. That the idea did catch on so rapidly, she said, is evidence that “we the people want democracy, not corporatocracy.”

“The Supreme Court changed the meaning of the 1st Amendment, and we want it changed back,” added Mary Laan, the Move to Amend leader in Milwaukee County.

Should the non-binding measures pass, these communities will join more than 40 others in Wisconsin that have already endorsed such an amendment, along with 16 state legislatures and almost 600 towns, villages, cities, counties, and organizations across the country.

The ballot questions have garnered bipartisan support, Rebane said, noting that previous referenda have passed with high margins in red, blue, and purple parts of the state.