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September 17, 2025
NEWS: Sen. Schiff, Reps. Neguse, McGovern, and Lee Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United
On Constitution Day, lawmakers resume push to ensure Congress and states can set reasonable limitations on political spending and influence by corporations on U.S. elections
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Colo.-02), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.-12) introduced the Citizens Over Corporations Amendment, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn Citizens United v. FECand limit corporate influence and spending in American politics.
“The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United opened the door for corporations to pour billions of dollars of dark money into elections. This anonymous and unrestricted spending cripples transparency in the political process and weakens our democracy. Our amendment will keep big money out of politics and restore power where it should belong — with the American people,” said Senator Schiff.
“The time to confront political corruption and clean up government is now,” said Congressman Neguse.“The Citizens Over Corporations Amendment works to renew people’s faith in our democracy by ensuring transparency through campaign finance reform and preventing unrestrained spending and dark money in elections.”
“Elon Musk poured millions into electing Donald Trump and then used the influence he bought to fire federal workers, dismantle USAID, and strip health care from millions,” said Congressman McGovern. “Citizens United gives billionaires like Musk even more power to rig the system for the well-off and well-connected. That’s not a democracy—it’s an auction. I’m proud to support the Citizens Over Corporations Amendment, which will overturn Citizens United, get big money out of politics, and put power back where it belongs—in the hands of the people.”
“Some say the beginning of the collapse of our democracy was when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United, giving the green light to corporations and billionaires to pour hundreds of millions into our elections and drown out the voices of everyday people. At the root of why we cannot make progress on so many urgent policies is a system where money speaks louder than people. The Citizens Over Corporations Amendment is about changing that. It is about putting power back where it belongs, with the people, so we can build a government that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few and their corporate interests,”said Congresswoman Lee.
Senator Schiff has introduced his constitutional amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives to overturn Citizens Unitedsince 2013 and has been a strong proponent of fixing America’s broken campaign finance system since he was first elected in 2000, after a race that was at the time the most expensive in the history of the House of Representatives. The first bill he cosponsored in Congress was the bipartisan McCain-Feingold Act to regulate the financing of political campaigns, which was later passed and signed into law.
The proposed Constitutional amendment will:
- Make clear the Constitution does not restrict the ability of Congress or states to set reasonable, viewpoint-neutral limitations on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections
- Distinguishes between natural persons, corporations, or other artificial entities, including by allowing Congress or the State to prohibit such entities from spending money to influence elections
- Allow public financing of campaigns when states choose to enact such laws, which can restrict the influence of corporate or private wealth = public fund election
- Take further steps to protect the freedom of the press in the case of future campaign finance-related legislation
Earlier today, Senator Schiff and lawmakers rallied for Constitution Day to underscore the need to protect our democracy and curb influence by special interests on American politics. At the rally, Schiff highlighted his proposed amendment reversing the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that ended restrictions on corporate campaign spending, eliminating decades of legal precedent.
The Senator’s full remarks at the rally can be viewed.Schiff’s remarks can be downloaded here.
The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H), Angus King (I-Maine), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
The bill is endorsed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Democracy Defenders Action, Public Citizen, End Citizens United, People for the American Way, Common Cause, and Free Speech For People.
“Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v FEC 15 years ago, unlimited and untraceable money has flowed from the pockets of corporations and the ultra-wealthy into political campaigns”,said Stuart McPhail, Director of Campaign Finance Litigation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “In the 2024 federal election cycle alone, over $2.7 billion was funneled through super PACs to various political campaigns. This dark money corrodes our democracy by allowing corporations and billionaires to hide their identities while greatly influencing elections and policy. CREW is proud to endorse the constitutional amendment introduced by Senator Schiff and Representatives Neguse, McGovern, and Lee to overturn Citizens United and ensure that the voices of average citizens are not drowned out by moneyed interests.”
“Democracy Defenders Action wholeheartedly endorses Sen. Adam Schiff and Reps. Joe Neguse, Jim McGovern, and Summer Lee’s constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United,” said Virginia Canter, Ethics and Anticorruption Chief Counsel and Director, Democracy Defenders Action. “This crucial step will ensure that all Americans, not just the super-rich and corporations, have an equal voice in our elections–and true representation in our democracy.”
“Citizens United has turned our democracy into a government that serves the ultra-wealthy. Political spending by billionaires has surged an astonishing 160-fold since the 2010 Supreme Court decision, and working families are paying the price like never before as self-enriching politicians bankroll tax breaks for their biggest donors. Senator Schiff’s amendment is a bold and commonsense step to reclaim government for the people. We applaud his leadership to challenge the billionaire class, fight corruption in Washington, and get Big Money out of politics,” said Tiffany Muller, President, End Citizens United.
“Citizens United destroyed our nation’s safeguards against the undue influence of money in politics. For 15 years now, dark money has flowed freely, allowing the rich and powerful even more influence over our elections. This amendment is essential to preventing that continuing assault on the integrity of our elections. People For the American Way is proud to support this amendment as we work toward building a democracy truly of, by, and for the people,” said Svante Myrick, President, People For the American Way.
“The vast majority of Americans want the real voices of real people to matter more than the money that corporations and the super-rich funnel into our political system. The devastating Citizens United decision 15 years ago dramatically altered the landscape of our politics—unleashing a flood of cash and deepening the outrage that regular people feel at the inequities baked into our democracy. We must overturn this decision. Senator Schiff, and Reps. Joe Neguse, Jim McGovern, and Summer Lee have remained focused and continue pushing for a constitutional amendment to do just that. Public Citizen strongly supports their efforts,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President, Public Citizen.
A fact sheet on the legislation can be foundhere.
Full text of the bill is availablehere.
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PT2 AUDIO ONLY 28TH AMEND SEE JUST KENNEDY
LAST ONE TOOK 200 YRS?!
648 views Oct 24, 2025 Lever Time
For 15 years, lawmakers have been trying — and failing — to overturn Citizens United, the landmark Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and billionaires to overrun our political system with money. Now, some Congressional Democrats are going big — by trying to enshrine campaign finance protections in the Constitution. In the second episode of Lever Time’s MONEYBOMB series, David Sirota sits down with Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), cosponsor of the new Citizens Over Corporations Act, which would introduce a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Does the effort have a real shot at fixing our democracy crisis?
...5:33
views when every day on the news, Americans hear things like this? Trump promised the big oil executives
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that he would deliver their wish list if they spent a billion dollars to return
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him to the White House. In his new memoir, Anthony Kennedy, the author of the Citizens United decision, says,
5:55
quote, "All of us are concerned about money in politics." In a recent interview with CBS, Kennedy also says
6:02
he's worried about the state of democracy. I'm concerned democracy presumes an
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open, rational, thoughtful, decent discussion where you respect the dignity
6:14
of the person with whom you disagree. And if it doesn't have that, then the then democracy as we know it is in
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danger. This is truly incredible. Anthony
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Kennedy wrote the ruling that floods American politics with unlimited money.
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The ruling that created the dark money groups and super PACs that drown out
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every other voice with negative ads. And now he's saying he's worried about
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democracy. This is like that meme where the hot dog guy crashes his car.
6:50
Yeah, we're all trying to find the guy who did this. Yeah. Apparently, Citizens United author
6:55
Anthony Kennedy is trying to find the Anthony Kennedy who did this to our democracy. It's clear from his memoir
7:02
that Kennedy overwhelmingly places the responsibility of keeping money out of politics on voters. It's a tired claim
7:10
that feels increasingly ignorant, but voters are getting fed up. At least on
7:16
the surface, it seems like lawmakers are beginning to recognize the outrage.
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Every year since the 2010 Citizens United ruling, there have been congressional efforts to try to overturn
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it. Needless to say, none of them have stuck. But certain lawmakers keep
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trying, and some of those lawmakers want to go big by passing an amendment to the
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Constitution. Passing an amendment is no easy task.
7:42
It's been 33 years since the last time we did it. During today's session, members of the
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House of Representatives engaged in debate over the recently ratified 27th Amendment to the Constitution. The 27th
7:54
Amendment says that if members of Congress vote to raise their own pay, they won't get that increase until after
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the next election. It's an anti-corruption amendment that prevents immediate pay increases for lawmakers
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who've already been elected. This constitutional amendment was ratified in 1992. When was the amendment first
proposed? 1789, more than 200 years earlier. It was
actually one of the very first constitutional amendments ever proposed in the history of the United States.
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James Madison, a representative from Virginia who went on to become the fourth president of the United States,
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came up with the idea. Admittedly, the 27th amendment had an exceptional path to the Constitution. But the point is
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that constitutional amendments are really difficult to pass. For an amendment to be ratified, 3/4s of the
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states in America have to approve it. That means 38 of these quote unquote
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United States have to agree on something.
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So, let's fast forward to today. Democratic lawmakers from four different states introduced the Citizens Over
Corporations Act. If ratified, it would become the 28th Amendment to the US
Constitution. One of the lawmakers behind that bill is from my own state of Colorado.
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Good to be with you, Joe Nagus. I represent Colorado's second congressional district in the United States Congress.
[SCOTUS EVEN QUID PRO QUO CORRUPT OK; MUSK INDEP OP PENN]
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right? Um, but we worked very closely together on this. I I think he had a general unease with the idea that you
would have just, you know, one singular trillion dollar company that could just destroy, you know, small businesses in
his district in in Longmont or the Eastern Plains of Colorado. So, yeah, I I think that there's potential. By the
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way, it's not just on N Citizens United. I mean, I I'm I lead the effort have led the effort in Congress to ban stock
trading by members of Congress. have done that for four years uh to lead the effort to ban it um and to ban members
of Congress from becoming lobbyists and both of those efforts also are bipartisan. There's a growing group of
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members who I think are again find great discomfort with those practices and so just got to try to you know make build
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coalitions wherever you can. So the last constitutional amendment that passed was in 1992 and I think
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people can't even really imagine at this point a constitutional amendment passing. So, I got to like ask like just
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like a real talk kind of question. Like, is this something real that people
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should not just support kind of in theory, but is is this like a real thing
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or is this like a press release thing? Like in your vision? Yeah. Is this
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something that like actually has a legitimate chance to actually happen?
Not maybe not tomorrow but in the next let's look I don't know in the next decade. Yes. Yes. I think so. I again I think
one our political system by virtue of the infusion of money by virtue of the
technological changes and disruptions that are happening at large in society. I think our political system is going
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through a a very deep fluctuation, right? And and just a period in which
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there's a lot of change and you see that in the way in which for example redistricting reforms had emerged over
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the last decade and now obviously different subject we could talk about but what's happening in the various states regarding redistricting. uh
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people always assume that it's just sort of the way it is until it's not anymore. And I happen to believe that yes, given
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the the level of support at the ground level in the various states, given the
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way in which certain states are beginning to try to find creative ways to essentially do this on their own and
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not wait for Congress. Maine, there's an interesting ballot measure. Montana, there's an interesting discussion
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emerging there of, you know, ways in which they are trying to invoke inherent
state authorities, right, and the ability of states to regulate corporations, which is long settled law,
to be able to legislate in this space. I just think there's a lot of movement and momentum, and I have to believe that,
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you know, yes, that it's possible, and I wouldn't be trying if I didn't think so. We're going to take one more quick
26:02
break. When we come back, I asked Congressman Jonah Goose about one other piece of anti-corruption legislation...
that's why the lobbying ban bill, the stock ban bill, the end citizens united measure, another measure doesn't get a
lot of attention. We could talk about it the next time, but an a bill by Ameilia
Sykes in Ohio that she introduced to restore the definition of quid pro quo
bribery, right, under federal law that the Supreme Court had eviscerated. And
...
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https://www.ecowatch.com/khanna-pelosi-green-new-deal-2620706846.html
Khanna to Pelosi: Don't Just Create Green New Deal Select Committee, Make Ocasio-Cortez Its Chair
By Jon Queally
As the debate within the new House Democratic caucus continues to grow over the demand to create a New Green Deal select committee, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) came out on Saturday to say that not only should Nancy Pelosi create such a committee, she should appoint newly-elected New York freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be its chairperson.
"Pelosi should not only create this committee, but also appoint ?@Ocasio2018? as Chair," Khanna tweeted. "That is the boldness voters want. We need to shake up Congress & give the millennial generation a chance to lead. They have the most at stake re climate change."
While the energy behind the demand has come from grassroots youth activists, led by groups that include the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez generated numerous headlines—and nearly a week of Capitol Hill chatter—after she joined protesters staging a sit-in at Pelosi's office on Tuesday.
Since then, as many have noted, the arguments for and against making a bold climate plan a top priority of Democrats have put a spotlight on the tensions between the more centrist establishment figures in the party—as well as those who have taken the most from the fossil fuel industry over the years—and the ascendent progressive wing that is calling for much more aggressive policies and visionary solutions.
Describing her engagement with the Pelosi sit-in and the activists who staged it as "good trouble," Ocasio-Cortez said there's a reason that Democrats, not the climate-denying GOP, are targeted on this issue at this point.
"I got a lot of heat when I joined these amazing activists on Tuesday," she wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday. "'Go protest Republicans,' we were told. 'You're being disruptive and unhelpful,' we were admonished. But the thing about protesting Republicans is that none of them listen to their constituents. We learned that w/ the Kavanaugh fight and so many before that. Democrats, on the other hand, do listen. So when everyday people show up in numbers and ask for change with commitment and consistency, we can get somewhere. And we are."
According to the Huffington Post:
The Green New Deal committee, meant to include six Republicans, would be charged with drafting a 10-year federal infrastructure and jobs plan to neutralize the United States' output of greenhouse gas emissions, adopt 100 percent renewable electricity and reduce widening income inequality. The resolution would likely seek to bar lawmakers who have accepted donations from fossil fuel companies from serving.
Maloney, Serrano and Khanna joined incoming House members Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) to support the proposal. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) did not return a request for comment, but told protesters on Friday he supported the Green New Deal.
Since Tuesday, the number of Democratic House members supporting the creation of the committee has continued to grow:
As Aaron Huertas of the progressive advocacy group Swing Left said on Saturday: "All the pundits who admonished @Ocasio2018 and @sunrisemvmt for pushing Democrats on climate showed that they're still thinking like it's 1999. But our politics have changed. Dramatically. Get with the times."
According to Jamie Henn, co-founder and U.S. program director for 350.org, it's ridiculous that the creation of this committee is even up for debate:
Writing in the New Statesman, columnist Grace Blakeley argued that the newly-elected progressive headed to Congress, and others calling for the Green New Deal, are putting forward "the most transformative economic proposal" since the era of FDR.
But it's not just the economic stimulative effect of such a program that makes it so vital, writes Blakeley. There are much "more far-reaching aims" in the Green New Deal than just that boosting GDP or creating new jobs.
"As the IPCC's recent report warned, and as the ferocious fires in California have demonstrated," she writes, "the world is edging towards climate apocalypse. If we fail to fundamentally change the basis of production, there won't be an economy by the end of this century. As such, the GND doesn't simply aim to boost demand, it aims to transform the nature of the US economy."
Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
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