Elon Musk<\/a>.<\/p>\nAmericans want to undo the Citizens United ruling, according to Tom Moore, a former Federal Elections Commission lawyer who is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The think-tank in Washington, D.C. is pushing to redefine corporations to ban spending on campaigns but allow them to lobby lawmakers.<\/p>\n
The prohibition would also include the nonprofit organizations involved in dark money spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a genuinely new approach to getting Citizens United out of America’s politics that is based on absolutely foundational corporation law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If just one state adopts it, Moore said, it would be tested in court.<\/p>\n
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, hasn’t said whether he’ll sign the bill. He has to say by June 30 if he intends to veto it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an instance where a small state has a chance to make big waves on the national scene,\u201d said state Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat, who introduced the legislation. \u201cI think we should take advantage of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The office of Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, a Democrat, opposed the bill, arguing in part that will be difficult and costly to defend in court.<\/p>\n
Separately, volunteers are gathering signatures hoping to put the corporate redefinition idea \u2014 branded as The Montana Plan \u2014 before voters in that state in November.<\/p>\n
Montana’s Supreme Court ruled in April that the effort could proceed even after Republican state Attorney General Austin Knudsen said it violates the requirement that ballot initiatives stick to one subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really resonates with citizens,” said Jeff Mangan, a former Montana state commissioner of political practices who\u2019s leading the ballot effort. “They probably see it because they live it.” <\/p>\n
Bradley Smith, a Republican former member of the Federal Election Commission, says Moore\u2019s idea is not likely to pass muster in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mistake I think supporters of this are making is thinking you can ignore the substance of a Supreme Court ruling by semantic lawyerly tricks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lower courts likely won’t approve a measure that aims to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling and would probably reject any law that ties the provision of general government services to the behaviors of the recipients, Smith said.<\/p>\n
If the measures take effect, he said, companies might withdraw from states rather than curtail their political spending.<\/p>\n
Loyola\u2019s Levitt says he\u2019s not sure whether the effort would work, but he knows who would decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I am absolutely sure of is if it got the signatures and is passed by the Montana public and is approved by the Montana courts, that the Supreme Court will want a crack at it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of steps between here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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