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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 11
IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE - FIRST SESSION
BY REPRESENTATIVES TARR, Tuck, Kawasaki, Gara, Drummond, Guttenberg
Introduced: 2/22/17
Referred: State Affairs, Judiciary
A RESOLUTION
1 Supporting action to overturn the decision of the United States Supreme Court in
2 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010); and urging the
3 United States Congress to pass legislation overturning the decision of the United States
4 Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, thereby restoring
5 free and fair elections in the United States.
6 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
7 WHEREAS elections in this nation should be free from the corrupting influence of
8 excessive spending and fair enough that any citizen may be elected to office; and
9 WHEREAS George Washington, the first President of the United States, stated, "The
10 basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions
11 of government"; and
12 WHEREAS James Madison, in Federalist No. 52, stated the intention of the framers
13 of the Constitution of the United States that the United States Congress should be "dependent
14 on the people alone"; and
15 WHEREAS that dependency on the people alone has evolved into a dependency on
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1 those who spend excessively in elections, through campaigns or third-party groups; and
2 WHEREAS the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v.
3 Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), removed restrictions on amounts of
4 independent political spending; and
5 WHEREAS the removal of those restrictions has resulted in the unjust influence of
6 powerful economic forces that have supplanted the will of the people by undermining their
7 ability to choose their political leadership, write their own laws, and determine the fate of
8 their own state;
9 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature, together with the people of the
10 state, support overturning the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United
11 v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), and urge the United States Congress to
12 pass legislation overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission thereby restoring
13 free and fair elections in the United States by removing the corrupting influence of excessive
14 spending in our electoral process.
15 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Donald Trump, President of
16 the United States; the Honorable Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States and
17 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Paul D. Ryan, Speaker of the U.S. House of
18 Representatives; the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; and
19 the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the
20 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.
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