Jeff Clements

Last updated
Jeff Clements
Clements Headshot 3.jpg
Born1962 (age 6162)
OccupationCEO of American Promise
Education Colby College
Cornell Law School (JD)

Jeff Clements (born 1962) is an American attorney, author, and the co-founder and CEO of American Promise. [1] [2] He is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money And Global Corporations. Since 2010, he has been one of the chief advocates for a 28th Amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and allow the U.S. Congress and states to set reasonable limits on campaign spending in U.S. Elections. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Clements majored in Government at Colby College, graduating in 1984, he obtained his J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1988, graduating Magna Cum Laude. [4] [5]

Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger in 1996, Clements served as Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1996 to 2000 where he worked on Investigations and enforcement of deceptive trade practices, antitrust, and consumer protection laws. [6] Starting in 2006, Clements served as the Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection Bureau in Massachusetts. [7] In private practice, Jeff has been a partner at Mintz Levin in Boston, and in his own firm. [8]

Advocacy work

In 2009, as a private attorney, Clements represented several public interest organizations with a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in the Citizens United case. Clements argued: "[w]hether or not the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United explicitly addresses 'corporate rights' under the Constitution, a holding that overrules Austin and McConnell would rest on the remarkable - and erroneous - assumption that the Constitution provides corporations with First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights equivalent to those of people for purposes of political expenditures." [9]

Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC , Clements and John Bonifaz founded Free Speech For People in 2010 to advocate for a 28th Amendment to overturn the Courts controversial 5–4 ruling. [10] [11]

In 2012, Jeff co-founded Whaleback Partners LLC, provides accessible start-up funding for farmers and businesses engaged in local, sustainable agriculture. [12]

In 2016, Clements founded American Promise to accelerate the movement to win a 28th amendment by building cross partisan, grassroots infrastructure across the United States. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

Campaign finance laws in the United States have been a contentious political issue since the early days of the union. The most recent major federal law affecting campaign finance was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also known as "McCain-Feingold". Key provisions of the law prohibited unregulated contributions to national political parties and limited the use of corporate and union money to fund ads discussing political issues within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary election; However, provisions of BCRA limiting corporate and union expenditures for issue advertising were overturned by the Supreme Court in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizens United (organization)</span> Conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization

Citizens United is a conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization in the United States founded in 1988. In 2010, the organization won a U.S. Supreme Court case known as Citizens United v. FEC, which struck down as unconstitutional a federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from making expenditures in connection with federal elections. The organization's president and chairman is David Bossie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act</span> 2002 American law regulating political campaigns

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act or BCRA, is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, and the new legal limits became effective on January 1, 2003.

First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765 (1978), is a U.S. constitutional law case which defined the free speech right of corporations for the first time. The United States Supreme Court held that corporations have a First Amendment right to make contributions to ballot initiative campaigns. The ruling came in response to a Massachusetts law that prohibited corporate donations in ballot initiatives unless the corporation's interests were directly involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Clement</span> American lawyer (born 1966)

Paul Drew Clement is an American lawyer who served as U.S. Solicitor General from 2004 to 2008 and is known for his advocacy before the U.S. Supreme Court. He established his own law firm, Clement & Murphy, in 2022 after leaving Kirkland & Ellis, following that firm’s decision to end its Second Amendment work. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Georgetown University and an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on March 14, 2005, for the post of Solicitor General, confirmed by the United States Senate on June 8, 2005, and took the oath of office on June 13.

District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. It ruled that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms—unconnected with service in a militia—for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home, and that the District of Columbia's handgun ban and requirement that lawfully owned rifles and shotguns be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock" violated this guarantee. It also stated that the right to bear arms is not unlimited and that certain restrictions on guns and gun ownership were permissible. It was the first Supreme Court case to decide whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense or whether the right was only intended for state militias.

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Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and sworn in on February 18, 1988. After the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he was considered the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding campaign finance laws and free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and other associations.

McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that found that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms", as protected under the Second Amendment, is incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment and is thereby enforceable against the states. The decision cleared up the uncertainty left in the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) as to the scope of gun rights in regard to the states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Move to Amend</span> American nonprofit organization

Move to Amend is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization that seeks to blunt corporate power by amending the United States Constitution to end corporate personhood and state that money is not speech. The group was created in response to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that corporations have a First Amendment right to make expenditures from their general treasuries supporting or opposing candidates for political office, arguing that the Court's decision disrupts the democratic process by granting disproportionate influence to the wealthy. Move to Amend advocates for the "We the People" Amendment, currently in Congress as H.J.Res. 48, to establish that constitutional rights are reserved for natural persons only and require the regulation and disclosure of spending in U.S. elections.

American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, 2011 MT 328, is a decision by the Montana Supreme Court ruling that the broad free speech protections given to corporations in Citizens United v. FEC do not apply to Montana's campaign finance laws. The United States Supreme Court reversed the Montana Supreme Court's decision in American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, 567, U.S. 516 (2012), in a short, per curiam opinion issued without oral argument. The court wrote only that the legal issue had already been precluded by Citizens United, and this case offered no new arguments and failed to distinguish that prior decision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Morrisey</span> American politician (born 1967)

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McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, 572 U.S. 185 (2014), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on campaign finance. The decision held that Section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which imposed a limit on contributions an individual can make over a two-year period to all national party and federal candidate committees, is unconstitutional.

Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 578 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in 2016 concerning the First Amendment rights of public employees. By a 6–2 margin, the Court held that a public employee's constitutional rights might be violated when an employer, believing that the employee was engaging in what would be protected speech, disciplines them because of that belief, even if the employee did not exercise such a constitutional right.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Promise (organization)</span> Campaign finance reform organization

American Promise is a national, non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization that advocates for a 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the U.S. Congress and states to set reasonable limits on campaign spending in U.S. Elections. Founded in 2016 by Jeff Clements, the former assistant attorney general of Massachusetts, and author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money and Global Corporations, American Promise advocates for campaign finance reform in the United States.

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), abbreviated NYSRPA v. Bruen and also known as NYSRPA II or Bruen to distinguish it from the 2020 case, is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court related to the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case concerned the constitutionality of the 1911 Sullivan Act, a New York State law requiring applicants for a pistol concealed carry license to show "proper cause", or a special need distinguishable from that of the general public, in their application.

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References

  1. "It's Citizens Who Will Save Us From Citizens United". YES! Magazine. October 26, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  2. "Jeffrey Clements: 'Corporations Are Not People'". SFGate. March 1, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  3. "The "rubber stamp" SCOTUS: How corporations' ugly myth became law". Salon. September 30, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  4. "Cornell Law Faculty Members Join Alumni Led Legal Advocacy Program to Overturn Citizens United". Cornell Law School. October 9, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  5. "Jeffrey Clements". Ballotpedia. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  6. "Testimony of Scott Harshbarger, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services Delivered by Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey D. Clements". The Committee on Financial Services. July 28, 1998. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  7. "Attorney General Martha Coakley and the National Federation of the Blind Reach Agreement with Apple, Inc. to Improve Accessibility of iTunes®". Mass.gov. September 26, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  8. "Lawyer to discuss Supreme Court ruling". Fairfield Citizen. September 6, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  9. "Beyond Citizens United V. FEC: Re-Examining Corporate Rights". American Constitution Society Blog. November 4, 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  10. "Reactions split on Obama's remark, Alito's response at State of the Union". Washington Post. January 29, 2010. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  11. "The Nation: Dump Citizens United". NPR. January 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  12. "Corporations Are Not People Author To Speak in Rockford". The Rock River Times. October 15, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  13. "Sapochetti: Give power back to the people with 28th Amendment". Boston Herald. October 6, 2016. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  14. "Putting Citizenship Back in Congress". The New York Times. July 4, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.