A Simple Solution
Kent Greenfield, professor of constitutional law and corporate law at Boston College Law School, has a straight forward solution for the corporate person mess and politics:
Corporations are chartered “for any lawful purpose.” To address the mistake of Citizens United, the only change required would be for charters to include: “except that any entity created by this charter shall not have the power to expend money to influence the outcome of any local, state, or federal election.”
Instead of messing around with the Constitution, just change the corporate law. This change would not alter lobbying, only elections.
Corporations receive special privileges from their limited liability, so Congress has the power to put restrictions on them. The problem was using the wrong law to impose the restrictions: election law, instead of corporate law.
I think the rollcall on such a change would be a keeper.
Update: I will have a “via” later, as I have forgotten where I first saw it referenced. It was Anthony McCarthy at Echidne’s.
