Cleveland Heights Residents Will Host 'Democracy Day' Tonight To Discuss Opposition to Citizens United

Cleveland Heights — and several other Ohio communities in the coming weeks — will hold an annual public hearing tonight, dubbed "Democracy Day" in opposition to the 2010 Citizens United v FEC Supreme Court decision.

The hearing is mandated as part of a 2013 ballot initiative, in which 78 percent of city voters called on City Hall to rally against the court decision. Leaders were urged in an ongoing sense to contact the city's federal and state representatives and declare that their constituents have "voted for a constitutional amendment declaring that only human beings, not corporations, possess constitutional rights and that money is not equivalent to political speech," as the ballot language puts it.

From the organizers in the national Move to Amend coalition: "The purpose of each event is to encourage citizens to attend the hearing to listen and/or testify on the negative impact of big money in elections and influence of corporate entities on the voices of ordinary citizens to be heard politically and ability to influence public policies."

Similar hearings are planned in the coming weeks for Mentor, Newburgh Heights, Brecksville and Chagrin Falls.

Toledo, Cleveland, Stow, Tallmadge, Berea, South Euclid, Shaker Heights, Newark, Parma and Lyndhurst may all consider similar ballot language in 2016.