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Legal Information

Corporate "Rights" Can Never Outweigh Our Community's Right to Local Control

There has been some question about whether it is legal to limit corporate involvement in elections because the Supreme Court has said that corporations have 1st Amendment rights of free speech.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a community can limit corporate involvement in elections if that involvement is undermining the democratic process and the citizenry's confidence in government.

Here is a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, explaining why previous laws (referred to as Bellotti) limiting corporate contributions have been overturned, and detailing why a law such as the Humboldt Fair Elections and Local Democracy Ordinance would be constitutional:

"Indeed, in Bellotti, this Court explicitly recognized that "[p]reserving the integrity of the electoral process, preventing corruption,... `sustain[ing] the active, alert responsibility of the individual citizen in a democracy for the wise conduct of government,'" and "[p]reservation of the individual citizen's confidence in government" are "interests of the highest importance" in ballot measure elections. 435 U.S., at 788 -789, citing and quoting [454 U.S. 290, 303] United States v. Automobile Workers, 352 U.S. 567, 570, 575 (1957). We did not find those interests threatened in Bellotti, however, in part because the State failed to show "by record or legislative findings that corporate advocacy threatened imminently to undermine democratic processes" or "the confidence of the citizenry in government." 435 U.S., at 789 -790."

The Humboldt County Ordinance to Protect Our Right to Fair Elections and Local Democracy (Measure T) contains legislative findings that follow the exact wording of the Bellotti case and other similar cases:

* The people of Humboldt County make the affirmative legislative finding that corporate contributions in elections are imminently undermining our democratic processes, and are denigrating rather than protecting First Amendment interests.

* The people of Humboldt County make the affirmative legislative finding that corporate contributions in elections pose a genuine threat to the confidence of the citizenry of Humboldt County in our government.

* The people of Humboldt County make the affirmative legislative finding that non-local corporate contributions are undermining our democratic processes, creating the appearance of impropriety and corruption, and are causing the people of Humboldt County to lose confidence in the integrity of our elections and in our government.

- Cited from "Section 3. Findings and General Purpose" of the Humboldt Fair Elections and Local Democracy Ordinance.

A survey was also conducted last year where the question was asked if voters thought that corporate involvement in elections made political corruption more likely - 78% of respondants did. See more about this survey here.

While the above offers strong legal argument for why the Fair Elections and Local Democracy Ordinance would not be overturned due to corporation's First Amendment "rights," it is also important to note that we do not believe that the courts had the authority to grant corporations constitutional "rights" in the first place. Only human beings can have civil and political rights. Corporate "rights" limit the rights of a community to pass laws that ensure local control over natural resources, worker's health and safety, the economy and elections.

More information on this subject

• Rick Hasen, Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, has also written a law review article on this topic called "Rethinking the Unconstitutionality of Contribution and Expenditure Limits in Ballot Measure Campaigns." (PDF)
• First National Bank of Boston vs. Bellotti (Case cited above.)
• Read what the legal community is saying about Measure T.

Humboldt Coalition for Community Rights
Mailing Address: PO Box 610, Eureka, CA 95502-0160
(707) 269-0984 | info@VoteLocalControl.org