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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Univ. of Md. students fight for democracy following court ruling

MaryPIRG members work on “Reclaiming Our Democracy” campaign in light of Citizens United case

Five years after the Supreme Court struck down limits on corporate and union campaign spending in the Citizens United case, students at this university are fighting to undo the damage to democracy they attribute to the court’s ruling.

Members of the on-campus activist group MaryPIRG decided to work on the “Reclaiming Our Democracy” campaign as their main effort this semester after they saw the effect that the Citizens United decision had on the political process. The campaign is centered on passing a small donor-matching program in Prince George’s County that would match donations of $200 or less by ratios as high as 6 to 1.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that the First Amendment prohibited corporate spending caps in elections, claiming such groups are “associations of individuals.” The court also said that spending money in elections was a part of free speech, and that limiting the amount of money a group could donate to groups independent of candidates, like super PACs, was an infringement of that right.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

don't you think college students should know that our country is a representative republic and not a democracy?

Anonymous said...

9:56 they only know what they are taught.

Anonymous said...

9:56 You took the words right out of my mouth.

Democracy's are oppressive governments with their big government ideology that make a push toward control of the people.

That is what Obama did to fundamentally transform our nation.

And they want more?