On Wednesday, Illinois became the third state in the U.S. to pass a bill calling for a constitutional convention to overhaul campaign finance laws, specifically, those established with the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
The Illinois House of Representatives voted 74-40 to pass Senate Joint Resolution 42. Six representatives did not vote, reported The Rock River Times. The measure passed the Illinois Senate April 9 by a vote of 37-15.
"With SJR 42's passage, Illinois joins California and Vermont as states calling for a constitutional convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution for the purpose of amending the Constitution," reported The Times. "Similar measures are also pending in Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas."
The 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling opened the doors for big money in political campaigns.
As The Center for Public Integrity explains, the 5-4 decision gave the green light for "corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want to convince people to vote for or against a candidate."
The court ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money in favor or against candidates.
While corporations still cannot contribute directly to candidates, the decision gave way to a new organization called super PACs which act as "shadow political parties," accepting "unlimited donations from billionaires, corporations and unions and use it to buy advertising, most of it negative," according to The Center for Public Integrity.
Numerous bills have been introduced in Congress designed to amend the Constitution, and would require a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate, however because many representative directly benefit from the Citizens United ruling, a congressional amendment may never materialize.
But, that congressional process can be bypassed if two-thirds of state legislatures, 34 out of 50 states, call for a constitutional convention on the matter. Once three-fourths of the states ratify the proposed amendment it becomes part of the Constitution.
The Wolf PAC political action committee, started by The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, is leading the charge to amend the Constitution through a constitutional convention, and have volunteers in every state working with representatives to get measures passed. The committee's stated goal is to end "corporate personhood and publicly financing all elections in our country."
