“Corporations are NOT people! Money is NOT Speech!” Anchorage, Friday, 11-1

January 21, 2012 is the two year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Citizens United which essentially gave corporations the first amendment rights and removed spending limits for corporate political speech.   In Alaska we saw the impact of this in last fall's write-in campaign by Lisa Murkowski.

Move To Amend is holding a rally at the

Anchorage Federal Courthouse

7th and C Streets

Friday January 20

 11-2pm

This is part of a national drive to amend the US Constitution to say the bill of rights applies to human beings and not corporations.  Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has submitted one amendment and Alaska's Sen. Mark Begich was one of the first to sign on.  

Voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have already seen the changes this has caused in the caucuses and primaries, with millions of dollars of third party ads.  Jack Gillum at Huffington Post writes:

Forget kissing babies on the campaign trail. The millions of dollars' worth of political advertisements airing before the early primary elections are turning out to be money well spent: The ads have affected primary results more than other forms of campaigning, including personal appearances by candidates, campaign speeches or town hall meetings, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

I was in Juneau in 2010 when the decision came out and I posted on the hearings in both state houses as both Republicans and Democrats worked to do damage control by adding disclosure requirements for any corporate donations.  Alaska didn't have disclosure laws because corporate political contributions had been banned altogether. 

I had a chance to talk to Curt Karns who is helping to coordinate the Anchorage event.