January 2011

Tea Partiers and so-called "constitutionalists" have, to a large extent, successfully convinced swaths of the nation that they are the great defenders of the Constitution, and that all who disagree are crazed, unpatriotic or traitors, likely all three, writes Garrett Epps for The Nation.

In "Stealing the Constitution," Epps, a correspondent for the Atlantic and a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, notes the "toxic coalition of Fox News talking heads, radio hosts, angry ‘patriot' groups and power-hungry right-wing politicians" helping to fuel "poisonous rubbish" about the Constitution.

The Tea Party and other fringe rightists are promoting a seriously cramped Constitution, one frozen in time and limiting of government. "It's easy to understand why conservative politicians and judges are trying to align their political program with a strained reading of the Constitution: Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and aid to education have broad popular support. Even the healthcare program, so reviled by the Republican Party, will be almost impossible to repeal using the legislative process," Epps writes. (Indeed, the rightist majority of the House did pass a measure repealing the landmark health care reform law this week, but was quickly called on its blatant political posturing.)

Four out of five Americans support passage of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United v. FEC decision, according to a survey conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of Free Speech for People.

The survey, released on the eve of the controversial campaign finance decision's one-year anniversary, found that Americans have low confidence in the current system for regulating corporations, and that opposition to the Citizens United decision "crosses all party lines."

Free Speech for People is engaging in a campaign to raise awareness about the impact of Citizens United and urge passage of a constitutional amendment to reverse its effects. In October, the group distributed a letter signed by 50 law professors, urging members of Congress to advance a constitutional amendment. The letter states:

Before Citizens United, a long line of Supreme Court cases, backed by two centuries of Constitutional jurisprudence and the basic truth that corporations are not people but creations of state law, had correctly ruled that Congress and the States may regulate corporate political expenditures not because of the type of speech or political goals sought by corporations but because of the very nature of the corporate entity itself.