Following the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, a lot of attention has been focused on the ruling’s impact on Washington, DC. However, the most consequential changes have arguably taken place in all 50 state legislatures.
Not coincidentally, political spending by corporations in state campaigns has grown 600 percent since 2010.
ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is an organization made up of corporate lobbyists from the biggest businesses in the country and state officials, who meet regularly to write laws, working side by side. Since 2010, ALEC has passed over 200 bills around the country.
Gordon Lafer, a former congressional policy adviser and an expert on state legislative politics, talks to Jeff Schechtman about the impact of all of this.
Of the hundreds of laws written by corporate lobbyists, the majority have been to weaken public- and private-sector unions, ease discrimination laws, make it harder to qualify for unemployment insurance and contribute to efforts at gerrymandering. All of this is happening, Lafer argues, while people remain totally bored by state politics.
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Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Citizens United (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 2.0).
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