The constitutional modification would ban company political spending, cap the quantities of cash that political donors can contribute or spend, require Congress to enact public marketing campaign financing or lose their salaries, and empower states to develop their very own marketing campaign finance limits whereas overturning Supreme Court docket choices like Residents United.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 10, 2025) – Consultant Jim McGovern of Massachusetts immediately reintroduced the Free and Truthful Elections Modification, a daring constitutional modification to finish the domination of massive cash in U.S. politics and return energy to the folks.
The modification is designed to be self-executing: as soon as ratified, it might instantly impose sweeping marketing campaign finance reforms with out requiring congressional motion. Key provisions embody:
Banning company political spending to affect federal elections.
Capping particular person contributions and expenditures in federal races at $1,000 within the mixture.
Requiring Congress to enact a system of public financing for federal candidates, or forfeit congressional salaries till they comply.
Empowering states to ascertain their very own contribution and spending limits for state and native elections.
The modification would overturn Residents United, Buckley v. Valeo, and different Supreme Court docket rulings which have blocked Congress, states, and native governments from defending our democracy and promoted rising inequality. In Buckley, the Court docket held that limits on contributions to candidates can solely be justified in the event that they forestall “corruption,” and people (together with self-funded candidates) have a First Modification proper to spend limitless quantities of cash in elections. In Residents United, the Court docket prolonged that very same proper to firms, reversing a long time of marketing campaign finance legislation. A subsequent case determined by the D.C. Circuit Court docket of Appeals, SpeechNow v. FEC, relied on this ruling in a choice that led to the creation of tremendous PACs.
Since Residents United, greater than $77 billion has poured into U.S. elections, rigging our democratic system to learn the well-off and well-connected,” stated McGovern. “That’s not democracy—that’s an public sale. It’s authorities of, by, and for billionaires and massive firms, not the folks. To repair our damaged system, Congress should get huge cash out of politics and restore democratic energy to the poll field the place it belongs.
The textual content of the modification was developed by Free Speech For Folks, a nonpartisan nonprofit authorized advocacy group devoted to defending the Structure and fulfilling the promise of democracy and political equality for all.
Within the wake of a presidential election by which the world’s wealthiest man profoundly and maybe decisively influenced the outcome — by spending nearly $300 million in assist of Donald Trump’s marketing campaign, $44 billion to buy the world’s largest social media platform and switch it right into a de facto arm of the Trump marketing campaign, and thousands and thousands extra in a number of $1 million bribes to particular person voters — getting huge cash out of our elections has by no means been extra pressing. The Free and Truthful Elections Modification will do exactly that by as soon as and for all imposing strict limits on marketing campaign contributions and election spending and mandating public financing of elections,” stated Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Authorized Advisor of Free Speech For Folks. “We commend Congressman McGovern for reintroducing the modification and persevering with to courageously battle for a democracy of and for the folks, fairly than an oligarchy for the companies and the mega-wealthy.
Congressman McGovern has additionally lengthy championed the Folks’s Rights Modification, which might finish the fiction of firms being handled as folks with constitutional rights. Free Speech For Folks served because the lead drafters of that modification as properly.
For extra data on the Free and Truthful Elections Modification, click on right here.
