# Hawaii Seeks to Overturn Citizens United **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 5, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603 "2026-10-05T18:41:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/21 "2026-10-06T00:35:45Z")
I’ve spun off a thread for a more general discussion since I know so many of you hate to do so. I do this _rarely_ because it would be hard for me to be considered unbiased if it had to be moderated later. But here you go: > [@What Rights and Responsibilities Should Corporations have as Legal "Persons"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-rights-and-responsibilities-should-corporations-have-as-legal-persons/1033611): > > Continuing the discussion from [Hawaii Seeks to Overturn Citizens United](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/4): I’ve spun this topic off (per my own moderation!) to allow for a greater discussion of the general rights of corporations in the USA, and of course, the rest of the world. I particularly wanted to examine @RitterSport’s response: Because the legislation establishing corporate “Persons” seems increasingly long in “rights” and very good at avoiding “responsibilities”. Something you all know is often a hobbyhorse for me. … If any of the posters in _this_ thread want their posts moved to _that_ thread, please let me me or another P&E moderator know. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/22 "2026-10-06T00:37:13Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > > Hawaii could simply decline to grant corporations the power to spend in elections. [Quote from Railer13’s quote, not from them] I’m not sure a state could decline certain individual rights to corporations but what they can do is refuse to charter any corporation that won’t pledge to not finance political campaigns (or something like that). IMO, don’t take on SCOTUS over the legality of the Citizens United decision because you’ll likely lose. Instead just concentrate on a state’s power to charter corporations or not. I’ve long felt that the way to make corporations behave better than psychopaths is through states’ decisions whether to charter or not. Stop handing out corporate charters like pizza coupon flyers. > [@RitterSport](#): > > Natural persons and corporate persons have different rights, though. And, until CU, corporations couldn’t put unlimited money into elections. Corporations, for example, can’t vote. They don’t have a natural lifespan. > > Looking at the Bill of Rights, some of them make no sense when applied to corporations – what does the right to bear arms mean in the context of a corporation? I’ve never understood the “personhood” argument considering that one of the main reasons corporations exist is to remove personal financial risks of business losses. So ISTM that corporations in that sense remove personhood. And it’s Frankenstein-ian. “Igor! Let’s build a person and then tell them how to vote!” Wait… that reminds me… if corporations are people how come they don’t get to vote? Just lazy like 60% of the voting population? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/23 "2026-10-06T07:58:43Z")
Hawaii isn’t the only state that is making this kind of effort. Michigan and Montana have propositions on their November ballots, and California has something in the state legislature. I can’t summarize them all, but from a fairly brief overview it seems that they are trying to undercut some aspects of CU especially regarding state elections. These efforts don’t seem to be an above-ground assault as much as undermining CU as much as they can get away with. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/24 "2026-10-06T18:45:05Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > but from a fairly brief overview it seems that they are trying to undercut some aspects of CU especially regarding state elections. These efforts don’t seem to be an above-ground assault as much as undermining CU as much as they can get away with. Some nibbling at CU may well work. I am hoping a future liberal Court could also take away parts of it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603/25 "2026-10-07T02:36:50Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The Citizens United ruling was what enabled the union AFSCME to become the Democratic Party’s biggest donor. This was once true but hasn’t been for several election cycles. They’ve apparently have donated just over [$2 million to Democrats in the previous four election cycles.](https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-fedn-of-state-county-municipal-employees/recipients?candscycle=2020&id=D000000061&toprecipscycle=2022) That’s a trifling amount. [Meet the megadonors pouring more than $1.7 billion into the 2026 elections](https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2026/06/25/these-are-biggest-individual-donors-2026-election-cycle/) The article lists the largest organizations as well as individuals. Number 10 (Draftkings) gave $35 million and it’s not even party affiliated. Given the size of the amounts of the top ten individual megadonors - over $700 million - I wonder whether Citizens United would be worth the battle. The real target should be SpeechNOW. org v. FEC, the 2010 case that created unlimited individual donations to SuperPACs as long as they were not “coordinated” with the campaign. Hawaii’s proposed law probably would stir the hornets without removing the nest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaii-seeks-to-overturn-citizens-united/1033603.md?page=1)