Sen. Jamie Raskin opened the rally Jan. 27 sponsored by two dozen Md. organizations

• Rally & Lobby Day draw 100 to Annapolis:
  Photos|News release |Article in Southern Md. Online
  
• WAMU FM (NPR DC) Rally coverage by Matt Bush
• Hear Charlie Cooper, John Nichols and John Malcolm on
  Mark Steiner on 5th Anniversary of Citizens United Jan. 21
• Hear "Midday with Dan Rodricks" Citizens United 5 Years Later, 1/26: Starts with Sen. Jamie Raskin, then Cato Inst., then GMOM's Charlie Cooper (at 36:11)
  
• Hear Wylie Burge & Herb Ettel on WPFW-DC (FF to 38:20 min.)

"Pay 2 Play" FREE Screenings co-hosted by GMOM, MCA, Common Cause, and Progressive Maryland

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  with their positions on amendment resolution
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• See Video of Sen. Jamie Raskin (below), AU professor of constitutional law, explaining the need for the Democracy Amendment at GMOM's Annapolis forum Sept. 22
• Corporations Get $760 from Gov't for Every Dollar They Spend on Elections
• BUY this new "Get Money Out" T-shirt at GMOM meetings and activities

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How "We the People" will amend the Constitution:
Corporations are not "people," money is not "speech"

GMOM (Get Money Out – Maryland) is working to get the Maryland legislature to pass a joint resolution formally calling for a Convention of the States (or "Article V Convention") to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution for free and fair elections and overturn Citizens United. When two thirds of the states do likewise, the convention must be convened.

Citizens United v. FEC is the disastrous 2010 Supreme Court decision which ruled that corporations cannot be limited in the amount they spend on elections, because of the Court's constructs of "corporate personhood" -- the common sense-defying notions that corporations have constitutional rights as if they were people, including "freedom of speech" -- and that spending money constitutes "speech." States calling for a convention (for the purpose of proposing amendments) is the key, as spelled out in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

We believe this is more likely to succeed than trying to get Congress to propose such an amendment in the traditional manner. Sixteen (16) states and over 550 localities have already passed resolutions calling on Congress to propose such an amendment, without calling for a convention of the states. Congress is free to ignore that type of resolution as it always has. Most recently, the U.S. House failed to take action on even a weak bill the Senate passed.

It is hard to imagine an institutionally corrupt Congress could ever propose an amendment seeking fundamental reform too end the political corruption of big money in elections on which they depend so greatly for re-election. All federal legislators won their seats by raising extraordinary sums from special interests in this blatantly corrupt system. Thus tragically, we have already lost our democracy at the federal level. Happily state legislatures are still responsive, for now, to the democratic process and popular pressure.  It is clear only states can achieve this kind of amendment, by bypassing Congress and calling for and convening a convention. This convention of the states is key.
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