On the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s horrendous Citizens United ruling, Al Franken took to the Senate floor to lambaste the decision and urge legislative action to overturn it. Below is video of Franken’s statement, as well as a few excerpts.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision, Citizens United, and with it, they gave corporations a blank check to utterly destroy our political system.  I’d like to take a few minutes this afternoon to tell you about the practical impact of this decision, how it threatens our democracy, and why we need to do something about it….

There is one line from the Supreme Court’s opinion that I think is worth sharing with you, because it highlights for me just how absurd the thinking of the Court was on this case.  It said quote; “[I]ndependent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”  Unquote.  My emphasis added.

This one line that is so flawed and so out of touch with reality is what has spawned the complete unraveling of our campaign finance system, and it has opened the floodgates for political spending….

In a post-Citizens United world, you often can’t even find out where the money is coming from.  PACs and super PACs have to disclose several times a year where they get their money from.  But companies often don’t want you to know that they’re giving lots of money to elect or defeat someone.  So they do something that looks a lot like money laundering, except it’s absolutely legal….

…it will be hard for $25 individual contributions to make an impact when compared to a single $5 million check from a super-wealthy, and super self-interested, individual.  Your voice, and the voices of millions of Americans like you, will be overwhelmed by the voice of a corporation or uber-wealthy individual that can write multi-million dollar checks without blinking an eye.   And all of this is going to happen under a shroud of secrecy….

I have teamed up with a number of my colleagues—Senators Whitehouse, Merkley, Tom Udall, Bennet, and Shaheen—in an effort to come up with a solution to this daunting problem.   I would like to see Congress take up and pass legislation that will, at a very minimum, force greater transparency to this out of control spending.