00                       HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 11                                                                     
01 Supporting action to overturn the decision of the United States Supreme Court in                                        
02 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010); and urging the                                     
03 United States Congress to pass legislation overturning the decision of the United States                                
04 Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, thereby restoring                                      
05 free and fair elections in the United States.                                                                           
06 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
07       WHEREAS elections in this nation should be free from the corrupting influence of                                
08 excessive spending and fair enough that any citizen may be elected to office; and                                       
09       WHEREAS George Washington, the first President of the United States, stated, "The                               
10 basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions                      
11 of government"; and                                                                                                     
12       WHEREAS James Madison, in Federalist No. 52, stated the intention of the framers                                
13 of the Constitution of the United States that the United States Congress should be "dependent                           
14 on the people alone"; and                                                                                               
15       WHEREAS that dependency on the people alone has evolved into a dependency on                                    
01 those who spend excessively in elections, through campaigns or third-party groups; and                                  
02       WHEREAS the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v.                                     
03 Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), removed restrictions on amounts of                                    
04 independent political spending; and                                                                                     
05 WHEREAS the removal of those restrictions has resulted in the unjust influence of                                     
06 powerful economic forces that have supplanted the will of the people by undermining their                               
07 ability to choose their political leadership, write their own laws, and determine the fate of                           
08 their own state;                                                                                                        
09       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature, together with the people of the                               
10 state, support overturning the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United                           
11 v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), and urge the United States Congress to                             
12 pass legislation overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission thereby restoring                           
13 free and fair elections in the United States by removing the corrupting influence of excessive                          
14 spending in our electoral process.                                                                                      
15 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Donald Trump, President of                                   
16 the United States; the Honorable Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States and                                    
17 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Paul D. Ryan, Speaker of the U.S. House of                                  
18 Representatives; the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; and                                 
19 the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the                                     
20 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.