[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 525 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 525

  Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to 
 restore the rights of the American people that were taken away by the 
   Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case and related 
decisions, to protect the integrity of our elections, and to limit the 
        corrosive influence of money in our democratic process.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2013

  Mr. Sanders introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to 
 restore the rights of the American people that were taken away by the 
   Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case and related 
decisions, to protect the integrity of our elections, and to limit the 
        corrosive influence of money in our democratic process.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following 
article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the 
Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 
several States:

                              ``Article--

    ``Section 1. Whereas the right to vote in public elections belongs 
only to natural persons as citizens of the United States, so shall the 
ability to make contributions and expenditures to influence the outcome 
of public elections belong only to natural persons in accordance with 
this Article.
    ``Section 2. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to 
restrict the power of Congress and the States to protect the integrity 
and fairness of the electoral process, limit the corrupting influence 
of private wealth in public elections, and guarantee the dependence of 
elected officials on the people alone by taking actions which may 
include the establishment of systems of public financing for elections, 
the imposition of requirements to ensure the disclosure of 
contributions and expenditures made to influence the outcome of a 
public election by candidates, individuals, and associations of 
individuals, and the imposition of content neutral limitations on all 
such contributions and expenditures.
    ``Section 3. Nothing in this Article shall be construed to alter 
the freedom of the press.
    ``Section 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to 
enforce this Article through appropriate legislation.''.
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