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“Montana has a history of fighting corporate spending and is a fitting state to spearhead the beginning of the end of Citizens United. Since 1912, corporations were banned from spending money to influence elections under the state’s Corrupt Practices Act. A hundred years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that act to ensure compliance with Citizens United.
“The people of Montana have not forgotten that,” said Moore. “They are fiercely independent. They don’t like other people coming in and telling them what to think.”
Montana’s amendment doesn’t aim to overturn the Citizens United ruling. If passed, it would merely render the ruling ineffective within Montana because businesses operating in the state would have to abide by its definition of corporations.
It’s notable that Montana’s amendment doesn’t aim to overturn the Citizens United ruling. If passed, it would merely render the ruling ineffective within Montana because businesses operating in the state would have to abide by its definition of corporations. This makes it immune to national legal challenges and the whims of a Supreme Court that’s even more conservative than its 2010 iteration. “This isn’t a regulation,” said Mangan, “it’s a different way of looking at transparency under First Amendment grounds.”
