If you go to a parade or public festival this weekend, you might see groups collecting signatures for a variety of issues. One is to try to limit campaign contributions.
The group Move to Amend Ohio has a problem with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows a lot of money from unknown sources to fund political campaigns anonymously.
Madelon Watts, a member of the group, says the problem is that money often drowns out the free speech of ordinary citizens. So, volunteers with her group are collecting signatures to prompt cities throughout Ohio to call on Congress to adopt this amendment to the constitution.
“To establish that corporations are not people and money is not speech, that only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with constitutional rights, money is not equivalent speech.”
More than 600 municipalities in the U.S., including 20 here in Ohio, have already approved resolutions urging Congress to approve the amendment. But those resolutions have no force of law.