Good Luck With That

Members of Congress Donna Edwards (D-MD) and John Conyers (D-MI) have proposed a constitutional amendment to counter the anti-democratic implications (ask yourself who has the deepest pockets) of the recent decision by the Supreme Court overturning restrictions on political spending by corporations:

‘‘SECTION 1. The sovereign right of the people to govern being essential to a free democracy, Congress and the States may regulate the expenditure of funds for political speech by any corporation, limited liability company, or other corporate entity.
‘‘SECTION 2. Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.’’.

An amendment is the only legislation that can possibly undue 112 years of legal precedent establishing the free speech rights of juridical persons. Giving business entities, which already enjoy legal privileges not according humans, the same political rights as citizens is a fundamental flaw in our system of governance. But the amendment will not be the first good idea to go nowhere because the procedure for approving a constitutional amendment is so difficult and tedious that is unlikely to ever be made law.