05/20/2026
Every state in the country needs to follow Hawaii’s lead in neutering Citizens United and getting big money and unlimited spending out of politics. Get rid of gerrymandering too, as both take the power of choice from the people.
I fully support restoring the power of each person’s vote in our democracy, by removing corporate influence from elections and stopping politicians from picking their voters instead of the voters picking their politicians.
Citizens United said corporations have a constitutional right to buy American elections. Hawaii just passed a law saying they don't. 24-0 in the Senate, 50-1 in the House.
As reported by the Associated Press and confirmed by Common Dreams and the American Prospect, Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed Senate Bill 2471 into law last Thursday.
This is the first legislation of its kind in the country.
The law redefines corporations under Hawaiian state law as artificial persons who do not hold constitutional rights to make political donations, directly challenging the 2010 Citizens United ruling that opened the floodgates to unlimited dark money in American elections.
It takes effect July 1, 2027.
The legal theory is straightforward and has been ignored for sixteen years: corporations are created by state law, not by nature, not by God, not by the Constitution.
The state gives them their powers. The state can define what those powers include.
State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole put it plainly: "Our rights as individual people don't come from the government. They pre-exist the government. But corporations are artificial beings. They possess only those properties which the charter of their creation confers upon them."
A Republican state representative named Kanani Souza opened with a question:
"Plainly, who does this democracy belong to? Is it the people of Hawaii whose voices, votes, and lived realities give meaning to this institution? Or is it corporations, created by the state, empowered by law, enriched by privilege, but never intended to stand as political equals to the very people who granted them existence?"
Montana is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative along the same lines. Fourteen other states have introduced similar bills since Hawaii's passed committee.
One state said no to billionaire dark money. The rest of the country is watching.
