Montana Initiative Takes Aim at Corporate Money

Backers of a new ballot initiative are wading into the ongoing battle over corporate money in politics.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently sided against the state's ban on corporate third-party spending in elections with an initial decision in an ongoing case before the high court. That follows a high-profile Supreme Court case from two years ago that extended constitutional freedom of speech rights to corporations.

But Montana Common Cause is preparing a new ballot initiative that asks Montana voters to set a policy statement that corporations are not people with constitutional rights.

It tells Montana policy leaders to oppose the high court's decision any way they can.

Opponents called the policy statement in the initiative "meaningless in substance, and unenforceable in application."