Group asks supervisors to fight Citizens United ruling

Carson City’s Occupy group has asked the Board of Supervisors to join in an effort to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that opened the doors to unlimited corporate contributions to political campaigns.The high court ruling resulted in nearly $1 billion in contributions by a small number of billionaires attempting to influence presidential and congressional races nationwide. Prominent on that list of contributors is Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who gave Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign upwards of $30 million.The ruling freed corporations from contribution limits by declaring they have the same First Amendment rights as people.Occupy Carson founder Janette Dean said the petition is being presented to local governments across the nation to raise the pressure for a constitutional amendment, in the words of the petition, “to defend democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate power.”It asks the amendment state that only human beings, not corporations, are endowed with constitutional rights and that “money is not speech.” That would allow regulation of political contributions and spending.The board took no action on the petition, which wasn’t on its agenda for a vote.