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  • "A corporation is an artificial construct designed to limit the liability of its owners. To call it a person accorded the full privileges and protections of the Constitution is laughable." -Joel
  • Sign the petition. Save democracy.
  • "Orwell is rolling in his grave." -Mark
  • Build the movement: Tell everyone you know about DemocracyIsForPeople.org right now!
  • "Citizens United v. FEC is ridiculous, it is unfathomable that it came to be. I am ashamed for humanity." -Ganna
  • Help keep the momentum going. Donate today!
  • "Only the idiotic or avaricious could equate a human being and a corporation." -Ronald
  • Connect with the campaign on Facebook and Twitter too.
  • "Stop playing politics with our futures!" -Robert
  • The petition has over 140,000 signatures.
  • "Democracy exists in name only when private interests can purchase the government they want." –Scott
  • Watch "The Story of Citizens United" video below.
  • "I am tired of some people being 'more equal than others.'" -Karen
  • Tell your friends and family about DemocracyIsForPeople.org.
  • "Money is not speech. The ruling was political and it was wrong. Corruption is now in full control of this country, it is NOT a democracy, it is a corporatocracy, and the people are being robbed." -Mary

Star About Star

Democracy Is For People is a project of Public Citizen. Since our founding in 1971, Public Citizen has served as the people’s voice in the nation’s capital, working to ensure that all citizens are represented in the halls of power.

Because the government should serve voters, not corporate interests, Public Citizen pushes to curb the influence of money in politics by exposing the influence of big corporations on government, pushing to open the government to public scrutiny and holding public officials accountable for their misdeeds. We do this by engaging citizens in grassroots efforts, undertaking groundbreaking, data-driven research and championing citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts.

A major focus of our work over the past year has been building a movement to counteract the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Our big push is for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. Shortly after the decision was issued on January 21, 2010, Public Citizen launched a petition drive for a constitutional amendment at www.DontGetRolled.org. That site was superseded by Democracy Is For People on March 1, 2011.

To alleviate the effects of the decision in the meantime, we are calling for public financing of congressional elections, the disclosure of the identities of donors who now can remain anonymous, and a law to ensure that corporate funds are not used for electioneering against the wishes of shareholders.

In the past two years, we have also:

  • pressed for restrictions on pay-to-play – the all-too-common practice in which businesses make campaign contributions to public officials in the hopes of winning lucrative government contracts
  • lobbied to stop insider trading by members of Congress and their staffs by pressing for a bill that would make government officials abide by the same insider trading restrictions as everyone else
  • recommended ethics rules to the Obama administration; the administration’s policy, announced in January 2009, is stricter than that of any previous administration, and the best aspects are based on our recommendations

Public Citizen does not participate in partisan political activities or endorse any candidates for elected office. We accept no government or corporate money – we rely solely on foundation grants, publication sales and individual contributions from our 225,000 members and supporters.

To learn more about Public Citizen and its other work, visit www.citizen.org.