Scuba,

With its Citizens United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court opened a flood of money flowing from corporations and billionaire donors into the electoral process.

People power is more important than it ever has been in fighting back to keep elections and issues campaigns free from big money's influence.

Join our Executive Director Lisa Subeck this Friday for an important public forum hosted by our partners at People For the American Way on how we at the grassroots can take action in the aftermath of Citizens United. Here are the details:

WHERE: A Place to Be, 911 Williamson St, Madison, 53703
WHEN: Friday, November 15th, 4pm-5:30pm
WHO: Panelists: Lisa Subeck, United Wisconsin; Mike McCabe, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign; Bruce Speight. WISPIRG
The panel will discuss efforts underway to turn the tables and return our America to a government that is by the people, and for the people. Speakers will be available for a question and answer session with the audience.

This event is free and open to the public.

You can RSVP for this event via Facebook here.

We look forward to seeing you this Friday for this robust discussion on how we can take back our democracy from big money special interests.

-Your Friends at United Wisconsin

Fifty years of Supreme Court tinkering with our political system has resulted in a democracy so dysfunctional that no rational person would choose it.

The people, through their elected representatives, gave us an effective Voting Rights Act to protect minority voters. The Supreme Court told us that we don’t need it anymore. The people gave us a campaign finance law limiting the expansive political power of the rich. The Supreme Court told us that unlimited campaign spending by the 1 percent doesn’t corrupt the democratic process.

The people gave us a practical way to allow underfunded candidates to compete with rich ones. The Supreme Court told us that it was unfair to the rich. The people walled off the vast trove of corporate wealth from our elections. The Supreme Court told us that unlimited corporate electioneering was good for us.

The people drew legislative lines to help racial minorities recover from centuries of political exclusion. The Supreme Court told us that it was a dangerous form of racism. But when today’s politicians entrench themselves in power by putting hurdles in the way of poor people voting, gerrymandering district lines to assure the re-election of incumbents, and stacking the electoral deck in favor of the majority party, the Supreme Court just stands by.

BURT NEUBORNE
New York, Nov. 4, 2013

The writer is a professor of civil liberties at New York University Law School.