Amended in Assembly April 28, 2016

Amended in Assembly April 14, 2016

Amended in Assembly March 3, 2016

Amended in Senate June 2, 2015

Amended in Senate April 22, 2015

Senate BillNo. 254


Introduced by Senators Allen and Leno

(Principal coauthors: Senators Hancock, Jackson, Monning, and Wieckowski)

(Coauthors: Assembly Membersbegin delete Bloom and Dababnehend deletebegin insert end insertbegin insertBloom, Dababneh, Cristina Garcia, Gonzalez, and Williamsend insert)

February 18, 2015


An act to submit to the voters a voter instruction relating to campaign finance, calling an election, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 254, as amended, Allen. Campaign finance: voter instruction.

This bill would call a special election to be consolidated with the November 8, 2016, statewide general election. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit to the voters at the November 8, 2016, consolidated election a voter instruction asking whether California’s elected officials should use all of their constitutional authority, including proposing and ratifying one or more amendments to the United States Constitution, to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) 558 U.S. 310, and other applicable judicial precedents, as specified. The bill would require the Secretary of State to communicate the results of this election to the Congress of the United States. The bill would require the Secretary of State, if prohibited by court order from submitting the voter instruction to the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, as specified, to submit the voter instruction to the voters at the next occurring election.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an act calling an election.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

P2    1

SECTION 1.  

This act shall be known and may be cited as the 2Overturn Citizens United Act.

3

SEC. 2.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

4(a) The United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are
5intended to protect the rights of individual human beings.

begin delete

6(b) Corporations are not mentioned in the United States
7Constitution and the people have never granted constitutional rights
8to corporations, nor have we decreed that corporations have
9authority that exceeds the authority of “We the People.”

end delete
begin insert

10
(b) Corporations are not mentioned in the United States
11Constitution, nor have we decreed that corporations have rights
12separate from “We the People.”

end insert

13(c) In Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. Johnson
14(1938) 303 U.S. 77, United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo
15Black stated in his dissent, “I do not believe the word ‘person’ in
16the Fourteenth Amendment includes corporations.”

17(d) In Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) 494
18U.S. 652, the United States Supreme Court recognized the threat
19to a republican form of government posed by “the corrosive and
20distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are
21accumulated with the help of the corporate form and that have
22little or no correlation to the public’s support for the corporation’s
23political ideas.”

24(e) In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
25558 U.S. 310, the United States Supreme Court struck down limits
26on electioneering communications that were upheld in McConnell
27v. Federal Election Commission (2003) 540 U.S. 93 and Austin
28v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce. This decision presents a
29serious threat to self-government by rolling back previous bans
P3    1on corporate spending in the electoral process and allows unlimited
2corporate spending to influence elections, candidate selection,
3policy decisions, and public debate.

4(f) In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Justices
5John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and
6Sonia Sotomayor noted in their dissent that corporations have
7 special advantages not enjoyed by natural persons, such as limited
8liability, perpetual life, and favorable treatment of the accumulation
9and distribution of assets, that allow them to spend huge sums on
10campaign messages that have little or no correlation with the beliefs
11held by natural persons.

12(g) Corporations have used the artificial rights bestowed on
13them by the courts to overturn democratically enacted laws that
14municipal, state, and federal governments passed to curb corporate
15abuses, thereby impairing local governments’ ability to protect
16their citizens against corporate harms to the environment,
17consumers, workers, independent businesses, and local and regional
18economies.

19(h) In Buckley v. Valeo (1976) 424 U.S. 1, the United States
20Supreme Court held that the appearance of corruption justified
21some contribution limitations, but it wrongly rejected other
22fundamental interests that the citizens of California find
23compelling, such as creating a level playing field and ensuring that
24all citizens, regardless of wealth, have an opportunity to have their
25political views heard.

26(i) In First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) 435 U.S.
27765 and Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing
28v. City of Berkeley (1981) 454 U.S. 290, the United States Supreme
29Court rejected limits on contributions to ballot measure campaigns
30because it concluded that these contributions posed no threat of
31candidate corruption.

32(j) In Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000) 528
33U.S. 377, United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens
34 observed in his concurrence that “money is property; it is not
35speech.”

36(k) A February 2010 Washington Post-ABC News poll found
37that 80 percent of Americans oppose the ruling in Citizens United.

38(l) Article V of the United States Constitution empowers and
39obligates the people of the United States of America to use the
40constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously
P4    1wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the
2heart of our democracy and the republican form of self-government.

3(m) Article I of the California Constitution guarantees the right
4of the people to instruct their representatives, petition government
5for redress of grievances, and assemble freely to consult for the
6common good.

7(n) The people of California and of the United States have
8previously used ballot measures as a way of instructing their elected
9representatives about the express actions they want to see them
10 take on their behalf, including provisions to amend the United
11States Constitution.

12(o) California’s United States Senators and Representatives
13would benefit from having instructions from California voters
14about the United States Supreme Court’s ruling inbegin delete Citizen’send delete
15begin insert Citizensend insert United and other judicial precedents in taking
16congressional action.

17

SEC. 3.  

A special election is hereby called to be held
18throughout the state on November 8, 2016. The special election
19shall be consolidated with the statewide general election to be held
20on that date. The consolidated election shall be held and conducted
21in all respects as if there were only one election and only one form
22of ballot shall be used.

23

SEC. 4.  

(a) Notwithstanding Section 9040 of the Elections
24Code, the Secretary of State shall submit the following voter
25instruction to the voters at the November 8, 2016, consolidated
26election:


28“Shall California’s elected officials use all of their constitutional
29authority, including, but not limited to, proposing and ratifying
30one or more amendments to the United States Constitution, to
31overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
32558 U.S. 310, and other applicable judicial precedents, to allow
33the full regulation or limitation of campaign contributions and
34spending, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of wealth, may
35express their views to one another, and to make clear that
36corporations should not have the constitutional rights of human
37beings?”


P5    1(b) Upon certification of the election, the Secretary of State
2shall communicate to the Congress of the United States the results
3of the election asking the question set forth in subdivision (a).

4(c) The provisions of the Elections Code that apply to the
5preparation of ballot measures and ballot materials at a statewide
6election apply to the measure submitted pursuant to this section.

7

SEC. 5.  

(a) Notwithstanding the requirements of Sections
89040, 9043, 9044, 9061, 9082, and 9094 of the Elections Code or
9any other law, the Secretary of State shall submit Section 4 of this
10act to the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general
11election.

12(b) Notwithstanding Section 13115 of the Elections Code,
13Section 4 of this act and any other measure placed on the ballot
14by the Legislature for the November 8, 2016, statewide general
15election after the 131-day deadline set forth in Section 9040 of the
16Elections Code shall be placed on the ballot, following all other
17ballot measures, in the order in which they qualified as determined
18by chapter number.

19(c) The Secretary of State shall include, in the ballot pamphlets
20mailed pursuant to Section 9094 of the Elections Code, the
21information specified in Section 9084 of the Elections Code
22regarding the ballot measure contained in Section 4 of this act.

23

SEC. 6.  

If the Secretary of State is prohibited from complying
24with Sections 4 and 5 of this act until after November 8, 2016, by
25court order pending resolution of an unsuccessful legal challenge
26to the validity of this act, then the Secretary of State shall submit
27Section 4 of this act to the voters at the next occurring election.

28

SEC. 7.  

This act calls an election within the meaning of Article
29IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect.



O

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