Tuesday marked 15 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The decision affirmed that people in the United States don’t lose their First Amendment right to speak about candidates merely by organizing into corporations or unions.
The ruling sparked intense controversy, with critics predicting it would corrupt U.S. democracy and allow corporate money to dominate our elections. These dire warnings have been proven wrong.
Far from enabling a corporate takeover of U.S. politics, the ruling enabled free speech. Since the ruling, publicly traded corporations have accounted for approximately 2% of political spending. The predicted flood of corporate dollars simply never materialized. Instead, we’ve seen a surge in small-dollar donations and grassroots engagement.
The effect of small-dollar donors in recent
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