The US Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC is facing its first direct challenge in the courts. A coalition that includes two national business networks and local Montana businesses recently joined the State of Montana in defense of its century-old ban on corporate money in elections. Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act, which goes back to 1912, is under legal attack following the Supreme Court’s January 2010 decision in Citizens United, which equated corporations with people under the First Amendment and swept away longstanding precedent that had barred corporate expenditures in federal elections.
Led by Free Speech For People, a national campaign to overturn the Citizens United ruling, the coalition filed a friend-of-the-court brief on April 29, 2011, before the Montana Supreme Court in the case of Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. State of Montana. In October 2010, a state judge hearing the case in Helena, Montana, struck down Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act, applying the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock has appealed that judge’s opinion to the state’s highest court.
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