One of the greatest threats facing our democratic republic is the influence the wealthiest have in our politics.
The painful reality is that, given the importance of campaign donations, far too many politicians focus on the needs of the wealthy few and powerful companies — and not on the needs of the people who voted for them.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United case deserves much of the blame for the cascade of big money in our politics. But we don’t have to wait for the Court to overrule the 2010 opinion to fix this problem. Instead, we can address it by taking action here in Colorado.
In Citizens United, the Court overruled decades of precedent and struck down a federal prohibition on corporate independent expenditures to support candidates, opening the floodgates to corporate money in elections. An analysis by Tom Moore of “Outside Spending” data from Open Secrets found the result was “immediate and dramatic,” with “reported independent expenditures of outside groups explod(ing) by more than 28-fold from 2008 to 2024 (from $144 million to $4.21 billion).”
Citizens United ushered in a massive stream of high-dollar donors routing their money through shadowy dark money groups to give unlimited funds to support (or oppose) candidates for public office. And candidates have taken notice.
The pharmaceutical industry, like other industries, invests heavily in campaign spending, building political influence to protect its profits. The industry has, for example, blocked policies that would make it easier for generic drug companies to enter the market and offer cheaper prescription drugs. That’s part of the reason Americans pay more than any other nation for prescription drugs.
The impact of big money in elections not only means higher prices for prescription drugs, but also that corporate landlords are given more freedom to mistreat tenants, climate protections are shelved, and tax breaks go to the wealthy few and not those who need them most.
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously said that if she could overturn one Supreme Court decision, it would be Citizens United. She was right — the decision was based on the deeply flawed logic that money is speech and corporations are people. And 16 years after the decision, it’s clearer than ever that Citizens United is doing real damage to our republic, with massive amounts of campaign spending, often by unknown groups.
We don’t have to wait for the Supreme Court to overturn Citizens United to fix the mess we are in. Citizens in Montana are now advancing a ballot initiative to get corporate money out of politics. While the measure cannot overturn Citizens United, it proposes the next best step, removing corporations’ authority to engage in political activities in the first place. Defining in state law what corporations are allowed to do is not a new principle; it has existed in American law since the dawn of our republic.
Colorado should join Montana and advance a similar concept to change Colorado law. And it can be done by a bill from the legislature–amending our laws to make it explicit that corporations are not human beings, and, therefore, do not possess the rights of human beings.
Colorado’s law listing out corporate powers granted by the General Assembly sets out a range of powers corporations wield — like the ability to sue and be sued, to lend money, to dissolve, and so on. And it provides corporations “the same powers as an individual.” The legislature not only has the constitutional authority to modify these powers, but it has done so often — like it did in 1996, 2000, 2003, and 2019.
Many say that they are fighting to defend democracy. Words alone aren’t enough, however. We must show Coloradans working hard to make ends meet that their democracy works for them. To do that, we must reduce the influence of big money in our politics so that elected officials work for the people, not special interests.
The promise of American democracy, as President Abraham Lincoln put it, is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That’s worth fighting for. Even if this measure will face challenges — as it most certainly will in court — we are committed to defending the principle that the people should decide elections, not deep-pocketed companies and billionaires.
Phil Weiser is Colorado’s Attorney General. Javier Mabry is a member of the Colorado House of Representatives.
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