Citizens United bill squeaks through Montana Senate
A bill that attempts to implement the overwhelming interest of Montana voters in reining in campaign spending by corporations was passed by the Montana Senate on Feb. 27.
A similar bill introduced as House Joint Resolution 6 never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee.
Both measures were intended to implement Initiative 166, which required that Montana’s elected and appointed officials carry out a “policy” stating that corporations are not human beings and do not have constitutional rights. The initiative was approved last fall by three-quarters of Montana voters.
Senate Bill 320, introduced by Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, is titled “An act revising campaign finance and disclosure laws, prohibiting a corporation from making independent expenditures or funding electioneering communications.”
His bill made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 22 with a 7-5 vote, passed a second reading as amended on Feb. 26 with a 26-24 vote, and passed on a third reading on Feb. 27 with a 29-21 vote.
A legal review note from the Montana Legislative Services Division warns that SB 320 “may raise potential constitutional conformity issues with freedom of speech provisions under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
The legal review note goes on to explain that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal limits on corporate independent expenditures in the 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The court ruled that “the government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s corporate identity. No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations.”
Furthermore, the legal review note says, the Citizens United ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 in American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock. In that case, the note says, “the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a Montana Supreme Court opinion that found that Montana had a compelling interest to impose the prohibition, and, therefore, the ban was justified.”
The U.S. Supreme Court said “there can be no serious doubt” that Citizens United applies to Montana law, despite its 100-year-old Corrupt Practices Act, which was passed as a voter initiative in the time of the Copper Kings.
I-166 addressed the legal concept that corporations, unions and other organizations are “persons” and how that applies to elections. I-166 required that Montana’s elected and appointed officials carry out a “policy” stating that corporations are not human beings and do not have constitutional rights.
Montana voters “actually charged us as Montana officials and elected officials to implement a policy that corporations do not have constitutional rights,” Vincent told the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that I-166 is “essentially seeking a reversal of the Citizens United decision.”
Some state senators, while sympathetic to the effort, thought that was an impossible task.
“We simply don’t have the authority to do what we’re doing here,” Sen. Anders Blewett, D-Great Falls, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And to pass this statute is just an exercise in futility and waste.”
The Montana Newspaper Association took an interest in the bill because most newspapers are owned by corporations. John Barrows told the Judiciary Committee that SB 320 could be unconstitutional, noting that “the elimination of the exemptions for editorial and commentary are broad restrictions.”
Vincent conceded later that he believed I-166 was unconstitutional and that the Montana Supreme Court should not have allowed it on the ballot last fall. On the other hand, he said he could not ignore something that won so much support from Montana voters.