Lucas,
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case that could — like Citizens United before it — further undo decades of progress in the fight against the corruption of our democracy by wealthy individuals and corporations.
The case is called McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.
Here's what you need to know:
Right now, no individual can give more than $123,200 combined to candidates, parties and PACs in each two-year federal election cycle.
If McCutcheon breaks bad, anyone with the means to do so could directly contribute up to $3.6 million to a single party and its candidates.
Learn more about how McCutcheon could be every bit as disastrous as Citizens United.
We're holding out some hope on this one, because deciding the wrong way would require the justices to go back on longstanding and popular precedent.
But we're not counting on anything.
If the court uses McCutcheon to double down on its Citizens United debacle, Public Citizen will pull no punches in fighting the ruling.
Just as we did with Citizens United, our legal team worked on an amicus brief submitted in McCutcheon.
And nobody has done more than Public Citizen to build support — at the grassroots and with policymakers — for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
If need be, the amendment movement we've spearheaded is fully prepared to take on McCutcheon, too.
The court probably won't issue its decision until next spring.
Stay tuned.
Onward,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
P.S. Really, do yourself a favor and find out more about how bad McCutcheon could be for our democracy.