This year Washington voters will have the opportunity to make Washington the 18th state in the United States to ask their federal legislators to enact federal constitutional amendment legislation to overturn the infamous 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision. In 2011, the Sierra Club urged the U.S. Congress to take action that “will lead to overturning the holding in Citizens United.” When Initiative 735 qualified for our November 2016 ballot, we moved to fully endorse it.
Specifically, Initiative 735 urges the Washington state congressional delegation to propose a federal constitutional amendment clarifying that constitutional rights belong only to individuals, not corporations; that spending money is not free speech under the First Amendment; that governments are fully empowered to regulate political contributions and expenditures to prevent undue influence; and that political contributions and expenditures must be promptly disclosed to the public. The measure would also urge our state legislature to ratify such a U.S. constitutional amendment.