Sample letters to the editor

COURT DECISION GRANTS CORPORATIONS MEGAPHONE
If you thought our elections were for sale before, buckle your seat belt.
The recent US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission is a virtual ‘blue light special’ with corporations gaining even more influence on local and national issues and votes. The far reaching and chilling decision went far beyond the simple question of if free speech protections under the First Amendment prevent Congress from restricting corporate political campaign contributions. In this decision the Court has overturned federal campaign regulations enacted in 1907, some of the few remaining constraints to prevent corporations from undue influence in our elections. It overruled Supreme Court cases from 1990 and 2003 that agreed restrictions on corporate money in politics do not violate the Constitution. It hands over the power to decide our nation’s most critical issues to profit-driven corporate CEOs and their shareholders by allowing unfettered spending to purchase votes, media and silence.
In earlier decisions the Supreme Court wrongly equated free speech with political contributions. Free speech will only be equal to political contributions when both individuals and corporations have equal amounts of each. Corporations already have compelling advantages over individuals. With this latest gift to corporate policy makers, media moguls and lobbyists, corporations have been given a megaphone, while John Q. Public is forced to whisper. No way to treat We, the People.
For more information about the decision go to: www.MovetoAmend.org and www.wilpf.org and organize to keep constitutional rights for individuals, not corporations.
Marybeth Gardam
Des Moines, IA Branch - Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom.
FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD BE APPALLED
Today's Supreme Court decision on corporations is a travesty and one of the most blaring examples of judicial activism we have ever seen. The Founding Father's had a lot of experience with powerful corporations in the form of the East India Company and there is plenty of evidence that they feared that power, and that they intended constitutional rights to be for us living, breathing people.
In fact in the early days of the country there was in effect a corporate death penalty - corporations that did very bad things could be disbanded and their assets sold, with proceeds going to the owners/stockholders. What do we do to them today? We fine them and they pass the fine on to us.
Let's also remember that the Boston Tea Party was a protest against the East India Company in which private property was destroyed because of a perk that England had given to them. They could sell tea without a sales tax that all other tea sellers had to pay. Today we focus more on the decision by England to give that perk, but it wouldn't have been an issue without a powerful corporation, and the Founders knew this.
The Founders would be appalled at this decision, which is really just an expansion of corporate "rights" that the Supreme Court first invented over a hundred years ago. The only solution to this is a constitutional amendment to restore the intent of the Founders.
Dean Myerson
White Salmon, WA
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