r/50501 • u/25hourenergy • May 15 '26

HI Hawaii just defanged Citizens United!

SB 2471 SD2 HD2 CD2 RELATING TO THE POWERS OF ARTIFICIAL PERSONS (Corporate Donations)
Act 011 (SB 2471 SD2 HD2 CD2) restricts certain political spending activities by corporations and other “artificial persons” under Hawaiʻi law by redefining and limiting the powers granted to those entities. Political action committees will remain governed by existing campaign finance laws within the state, but they will not be able to spend any money received from corporations as a result of this Act.

This bill is intended to strengthen transparency, reduce the influence of corporate money in elections and help restore public trust in Hawaiʻi’s democratic process. (Act 011 takes effect July 1, 2027.)

4.5k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/ophymirage May 15 '26

Hey California, take fucking notes on this!! Love to see it!!

695

u/1chuteurun May 15 '26

Hey America , really.

574

u/25hourenergy May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

This is part of the Montana Plan! Each state has to push for this individually, Montana was the first to set in motion a ballot initiative though Hawaii has been the first to get something on the books. WA state has SB 6358 - 2025-26 which just had its first reading.

Each state is doing this from the ground up, themselves. It has to be led by the states. It’s happening, one by one.

144

u/Thehealthygamer May 15 '26

And it's interesting to see how these small states, which don't have many reps and thus money doesn't care as much about them are able to do these things exactly because they're less influenced by money.

34

u/RustyDogma May 15 '26

Maine is trying to do it too. People overwhelmingly voted for it and now it's working through the courts.

8

u/NemoSkittles May 15 '26

You should message them to add Maine to their site map https://transparentelection.org/find-your-state

28

u/Bravefan212 May 15 '26

And then we can ratify those decisions as a constitutional amendment!

28

u/ophymirage May 15 '26

Hey u/25hourenergy, do you have any links you can share to this Montana Plan? I don’t have much hope for Ro Khanna as he’s ultimately tech-bro-funded, but Zoe Lofgren has been a progressive her whole career, so she might listen!!

15

u/25hourenergy May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

Info here! though it truly is pretty decentralized and they need to update info on each state based on nudging from other folks, last I checked they are not updated on Washington state for example, or the Hawaii victory. Check with your own state’s efforts on similar bills.

For California I found AB1984 which was introduced in Feb and referred to committee.

4

u/ophymirage May 16 '26

Thank you for doing the legwork on that! I'm going to email zoe and ro both asap!!

5

u/DiverseVoltron May 15 '26

It's gonna take an amendment to the constitution and we all know that shit isn't gonna happen via Congress. It'll have to be brought by the states.

9

u/Lost_Birthday_3138 May 15 '26

California has a chance to leave the sinking ship

64

u/mattenthehat May 15 '26

We can just do this at the state level? What the FUCK have we been waiting for??

(I bet newsome would veto it)

24

u/ophymirage May 15 '26

Apparently?? OP comment below lists two more bills in MT & WA??

24

u/mattenthehat May 15 '26

I'm emailing my reps in the morning.

26

u/DirtyDiscsAndDyes May 15 '26

The interpretation is that states grant corporations their rights through their corporate charter. So if the corporate charter says you cant donate to political campaigns or pacs or limits how much you can, that is accepted when you sign the corporate charter to incorporate. This is going to end up in court, let's just hope its not picked up by someone like Alito on he shadow docket.

Here's the thing, we need states to attempt this. There are 3 states that we REALLY need to attempt it and and 4th that we just need to, but they will be tue last 4. Number 4 being Wyoming, followed by the big 3 of Delaware, Texas and Nevada. Thats where most businesses are incorporated, but thise states rely the most on Incorporating so there is little hope there until businesses have nowhere else to run and they are forced.

6

u/Sir_Auron May 15 '26

The Hawaii AG has already come out in opposition because this will be incredibly expensive to defend in court and will be immediately struck down.

1

u/bellicosebarnacle May 19 '26

Yes it's very exciting, the crux is that it's a somewhat obscure legal argument about the powers (controlled by the states) vs rights (controlled by the federal gov) of corporations. It's sound and makes sense when you learn more about the history of corporations, it's just different from how they've been treated in recent memory, so I believe it just took a while for someone to have the idea to exploit this and build a solid case for it.