The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly January 16-22 2012

On the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Steven Rosenfeld considers the legal hurdles faced by opponents of the ruling. The Supreme Court rejected Texas redistricting maps that had been drawn by a State court and also heard arguments in an Alabama challenge to the Voting Rights Act. After a recount marred by incomplete returns from 8 counties, the Iowa Republican party announced that Rick Santorum had won the non-binding caucus earlier this month. Opponents of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker submitted over one million petition signatures – almost twice the amount required – to force a recall election for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and four Republican State Senators. Attorney General Eric Holder pledged to protect voting rights at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day. Social media played a large role in informing Chinese citizens about the democratic process in Taiwan’s elections over the weekend and Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections were denounced as undemocratic by observers.

Editorials: The War on Political Free Speech | Bradley Smith/WSJ.com

Two years ago the Supreme Court upheld the right of an incorporated nonprofit organization to distribute, air and advertise a turgid documentary about Hillary Clinton called, appropriately enough, “Hillary: The Movie.” From this seemingly innocuous and obvious First Amendment decision has sprung a campaign of disinformation and alarmism rarely seen in American politics. From the start, reaction to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has bordered on the hysterical. Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) called it the “worst decision since Dred Scott”—the 1857 decision holding that slaves could never become citizens. In his State of the Union message, within days of the ruling, President Obama lectured Supreme Court justices in attendance that they had “reversed a century of law” to allow “foreign companies to spend without limit in our elections.” Neither statement was true.

Editorials: The Uphill Battle Against Citizens United: Tricky Legal Terrain and No Easy Fixes | AlterNet

The movement to overturn the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling and confront the doctrine of corporate personhood stands at a perilous crossroads.  Across the country, two distinct strategies are converging on Congress. More than a million people have signed online petitions. State legislators, city and township governments, Democratic Party groups and unions have sponsored and passed measures in 23 states demanding that Congress pass a constitutional amendment to reassert and elevate the political speech of ordinary citizens and roll back the growing political speech and legal privileges of corporations.