The Lauderdale City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at Lauderdale City Hall, 1891 Walnut St. Contact information: 651-792-7650 or visit the website at lauderdalemn.org.
Resolution asks Congress to reverse Citizens United decision
The Lauderdale City Council passed a resolution at its Nov. 28 meeting supporting legislation that would petition Congress to reverse the controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC.
The Supreme Court decision had two elements that have changed the way political campaigns are funded: It gave corporations and other artificial legal entities the sameconstitutional rights enjoyed by citizens, and it equated the spending of money to free speech. The result has been an increase of money into the U.S. election system from corporations. Opponents to the decision say this gives corporations a disproportionate influence in the government.
The Lauderdale resolution requests that Congress clarify that “the rights protected under the Constitution are the rights of natural persons and not the rights of artificial entities and that spending money to influence elections is not speech under the First Amendment; asking that Congress propose a constitutional amendment to provide such clarification.”
Copies of the resolution were sent to Minnesota’s senators and representatives in Congress and Lauderdale’s senator and representative in the Minnesota Legislature.
