Local Move To Amend Gathers Petitions Against Citizens United Ruling

Cleveland Heights voters will likely weigh in on the controversial Citizens United Supreme Court ruling at the ballot box in November.

Cleveland Heights Move To Amend, a local chapter of a national effort to repeal the Supreme Court Ruling, gathered enough petitions to place a ballot issue on the ballot opposing the Citizens United ruling, which loosened corporate spending restrictions on election issues.

Move To Amend has spent much of the summer gathering petitions and turned them in to the city in early July. They collected 2,241 certified signatures, enough to have the item on the ballot, said Finance Director Tom Raguz.

The ballot language calls for Congress to amend the Constitution to establish that "corporations are not people and money is not speech."

If passed, the ballot issue would require Cleveland Heights to hold an annual public hearing in which residents can discuss the impact of corporate money on the latest election. After the public hearing, the city of Cleveland Heights would send a letter to the Ohio congressional delegation informing them that Cleveland Heights residents oppose Citizens United and call on a Constitutional amendment.

Sally Hanley, a resident with Move to Amend who helped lead the petition effort, said the vote will show elected leaders how residents feel about the court ruling.

"They know that it’s the voice of the people of Cleveland Heights,” she said. 

City Council needs to vote to put the item on the ballot. Mayor Ed Kelley said in July that he would refer the petitions to the Council Committee of the Whole, and have the matter before the full council on Aug. 5.