Jeff Clements

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Jeff Clements
Clements Headshot 3.jpg
Born1962 (age 62–63)
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 an amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the states and U.S. Congress to decide whether and how to regulate campaign spending in 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. Clements departed Free Speech For People in 2016. [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 for an amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the states and U.S. Congress to decide whether and how to regulate campaign spending in elections. [13] [14]

Public Appearances

Jeff Clements is a frequent speaker on the national circuit. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe, Salon, The Hill, Fox News, MSNBC, and many other outlets.

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®". Attorney General of Massachusetts. 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.
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