John,
Thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court handed down one of the worst judicial decisions in U.S. history.
The Citizens United v. F.E.C. ruling opened the floodgates of money in our political system. There has been an explosion in untraceable and unaccountable money in our political process, allowing special interests and big money donors to buy our elections and influence our politicians.
Today, billionaires buy support for their pet issues, bypassing any need to convince voters of their importance. Greedy corporations use their money to influence politicians to act in ways that will boost their profits. Special interests—sometimes backed by foreign powers—use their dollars to put their issues on the agenda.
Congress has repeatedly failed to address gaps in disclosure laws. Elected officials who prior to Citizens United supported disclosure dropped that support once they heard the siren call of unlimited and untraceable money. Candidates campaign on eliminating outside spending, only to reverse course once in office.
This is not a government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
CREW is fighting to expose the dark money in our government, and to make government more transparent. If you support our work, and want to get billionaires and big foreign money out of politics, chip in to help fund our efforts at CREW →
CREW was founded in 2003. Citizens United was decided in 2010. So, for a majority of our existence, we've worked in a space where dark money has flooded our political system. It's had disastrous consequences for voter transparency.
In the 2022 elections, 91.3% of the money given was from the top 1% of donors.
With government bodies failing to police themselves or each other, it falls on private individuals and groups to protect themselves from corruption. Thankfully, groups can sue the FEC for its failure to enforce the law. And that’s exactly what we’ve done at CREW, over and over.
We’ll hold leaders and corporations accountable when they violate campaign finance laws. And we’ll continue to fight for a better democracy, to expose dark money, and to make sure the people have a say over the top 1%.
We need your help to keep up the work. Make a donation today to help CREW continue to hold our government official accountable →
Thanks,
CitizensforEthics.org
