Search NHI content
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 11:14AM 
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
In the News Today
|
|
CEI, EPA, Elena Kagan, Obamacare, Regulatory Actions, SEIU, Supreme Court, Unions Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 07:30AM 
Citizens Unite for a Constitutional Amendment
Dear Friend,
Overturn Citizens United: Sign the petition today to support H.J. Res 100. Let us change our campaign financing system so that we can truly claim to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Two years ago today, in the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court opened the doors of our electoral process and democracy to shadowy, undisclosed, unlimited corporate spending in our elections. In his dissent Justice Stevens remarked "The Court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation."
It has undermined our democracy. Citizens United allowed more money to be spent in 2010 than any prior midterm election, and will allow even more money to be spent in 2012 than any prior presidential election.
The funding of our electoral contests has a direct effect on who controls our political process. Corporations are overwhelming our political system with massive contributions leading directly to corporate control of the government. A government truly responsive to the public interest requires public financing of the political process.
To save our democracy, we shall turn to the document that established it. This week, I introduced a Constitutional Amendment which would require that all federal campaigns be financed exclusively by public funds and prohibit expenditures from every other source.
My amendment, H.J. Res. 100, would change the way we finance the elections of our Presidents, Senators and Representatives. It is our chance to return the government to the control of the people.
Sign and share the petition today to support H.J. Res 100. Let us change our campaign financing system so that we can truly claim to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Our Constitutional Amendment, H.J. Res 100 would also prohibit independent expenditures on behalf of or against any candidate to further protect our democratic process from private influence, while safeguarding our First Amendment rights.
Public financing of federal elections is critical to the restoration of our American democracy. How we fund our elections is not an academic argument. Progress on every important issue in American society today - economic, social and political - will not be achieved until we use the vehicle of a Constitutional Amendment to gain public control of the financing of campaigns. We cannot wait. We must declare and enshrine the public interest: Please sign the petition today.
The problems we face right now are too serious to allow our government to keep drifting towards a plutocracy. We must begin NOW the long, difficult process of amending the Constitution. The Constitution is a living, breathing document and it is up to us to claim its power to deal with the threat which Citizens United brings to our government, our nation and our way of life.
Courage,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:04AM 
AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement:
"I applaud the United States Supreme Court's unanimous decision to protect the ministerial exception for houses of worship in America.
"The Justice Department, as part of the Obama administration's ongoing war on religion, joined the suit to force churches to stop giving consideration of a person's spiritual beliefs in hiring and firing decisions.
"Chief Justice Roberts correctly acknowledged in his majority opinion that the lawsuit was a threat to religious freedom, saying, 'Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs... By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group's right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments.'
"This is a tremendous victory for religious expression in America, and a setback for the left-wing secular agenda of the Obama administration."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 08:18AM 
Nov. 14, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued a statement praising the U.S. Supreme Court for taking up the case against Barack Obama's signature health care legislation:
"The Supreme Court decision over ObamaCare's individual mandate is one that will shape the future of the nation. Based on the outcome, we will either be a constitutional republic of limited powers, or an unlimited plutocracy of ever-increasing mandates on individuals. Government wants to force people to buy health care, U.S. treasuries, and to raid our pension funds — all to prop up the unsustainable entitlement state. That is not the America people believe in. It is authoritarianism.
"The Supreme Court is now the only thing that stands in the way of a government that can literally force people to do anything. No less is at stake in the case over ObamaCare's individual mandate."
ALG, Commerce Clause, Obamacare, Supreme Court Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 08:16AM 
CEI attorney Hans Bader offers analysis and comment on today's decision by the Supreme Court to hear constitutional chalenges to Obamacare. CEI also filed an amicus brief challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, arguing that the 2010 healthcare law unconstitutionally exceeds Congress’s powers under the Commerce and Spending Clauses.
In his commentary, Bader explains why the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was right to strike down the individual mandate as unconstitutional but wrong to leave the rest of the Obamacare law intact. > Read the full commentary at Openmarket.org: Supreme Court Grants Review in Case Challenging Obamacare as Unconstitutional.
Best,
Christine
CEI Communications Director
CEI, Commerce Clause, Newsletter, Obamacare, Supreme Court 
claims that its ultra-expensive new Mercury and Air Toxics rule is appropriate and necessary in order to protect fetuses from developmental disorders. Yet, according to EPA’s own analysis, the new mercury regulation serves to protect America’s supposed population of pregnant, subsistence fisherwomen, who eat 300 pounds of self-caught fish reeled in exclusively from the most polluted bodies of water. To put it another way, this regulation, which costs $10 billion annually, safeguards a population that doesn’t exist.