1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

Citizens United said corporations have a constitutional right to buy American elections. Hawaii just passed a law saying they don't. 24-0 in the Senate, 50-1 in the House. Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed Senate Bill 2471 into law last Thursday. This is the first legislation of its kind in the country. The law redefines corporations under Hawaiian state law as artificial persons who do not hold constitutional rights to make political donations, directly challenging the 2010 Citizens United ruling that opened the floodgates to unlimited dark money in American elections. It takes effect July 1, 2027. The legal theory is straightforward and has been ignored for sixteen years: corporations are created by state law, not by nature, not by God, not by the Constitution. The state gives them their powers. The state can define what those powers include. State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole put it plainly: "Our rights as individual people don't come from the government. They pre-exist the government. But corporations are artificial beings. They possess only those properties which the charter of their creation confers upon them." One state said no to billionaire dark money. Massachusetts needs to do this too. Please work on getting this passed here as soon as possible.