Citizens United ruling must be overturned

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

One of the most insidious things about the "Citizens United" ruling by the Supreme Court is that it gives corporations the legal ability to donate unlimited and anonymous contributions to candidates, then pass the bill for these contributions on to us in the form of higher prices.

This way they can effectively buy candidates who favor them, often at the expense of working Americans, but we end up paying for these contributions whenever we buy the products and services these same corporations sell. This effectively gives corporations the ability to buy elections.

We must get more moderate members on the Supreme Court to overturn this ruling or get a constitutional amendment to overturn this ruling. Campaign contributions should only come from people, and these contribution amounts should be limited to $2,500 per candidate per election for president and lesser amounts for other elected officials. The media should provide free or drastically reduced price advertising space in return for their licenses to be public broadcasters.

Think what a different democracy we would have if legislators actually responded to average Americans' needs and concerns, instead of chasing and being beholden to large donors. Wouldn't that be refreshing?

Mark Rothacher

Salt Lake City