On April 5, voters in Madison and in Dane County will have a chance to begin reclaiming their democratic voice. In 2010, by the barest of majorities, the United States Supreme Court decided that private corporations could spend unlimited and unregulated amounts of their corporate funds to influence American elections. The case, ?Citizens United v. FEC,? was based on the ideas that corporations are just like real people when it comes to having constitutional rights, and that money is the equivalent of speech.
(Michael Olneck is a UW-Madison professor emeritus of educational policy studies)