Move to Amend’s Position on the Transparent Election Initiative
(aka “Montana Plan”)
What it is
The Transparent Election Initiative – also known as the Montana Plan – is a proposed citizen-driven ballot measure in the state of Montana intended for the November 2026 ballot. Its goal is to eliminate the currently unlimited corporate political campaign contributions made through Super PACs and “dark money” groups, a practice that became legal following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision.
The Initiative has the potential to immediately address the root of corporate political influence by focusing on corporate charters. In the United States, corporations are legal entities (often referred to as “Artificial Persons”) created by government authority, primarily by states, to grant individuals certain powers and protections, including limited liability. Historically, corporate entities were intended to remain subordinate to the public through state legislation that defined the specific privileges and conditions necessary for conducting business, such as the ability to enter into contracts or to sue and be sued. Early corporate business charters were granted individually by state legislatures and later through general incorporation laws based on the business type. If a corporation failed to comply with the terms of its charter, the charter could be revoked, effectively dissolving the business.
What it does
Since individual states possess the authority to determine corporate political activity and dark money spending, they alone define what powers corporations possess. Without the power to donate/invest politically, corporations can’t have the constitutional right to donate/invest.
The proposed Initiative "retract[s] all Artificial Persons' powers and re-grants only those powers that the people deem necessary or convenient to carry out an Artificial Person's lawful business or charitable purposes, as described in (3)(e)".
Without the state power to spend/invest money in elections, corporations cannot claim under Citizens United or other Supreme Court decisions that they have the constitutional right to spend/invest money in elections. Therefore, corporate constitutional First Amendment rights become irrelevant.
What it doesn’t do
If fully implemented, the Plan would not directly limit, regulate, control, or prohibit political campaign contributions or investments by individuals to candidates or campaigns, including donations to dark-money groups and Super PACs. Billionaires and other wealthy individuals would still be able to contribute to political candidates and fund “independent” political advertisements just as easily as before. In fact, they might contribute even more to compensate for the loss of corporate political spending. This would remain unchanged because the Plan does not address the constitutional reality that political spending in elections is treated as First Amendment–protected “free speech.
The Montana Plan only targets corporate constitutional First Amendment free speech rights. Other corporate constitutional rights would remain in place, which would continue to harm people, communities and the natural world. These include:
- First Amendment right not to speak,
- Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights,
- Fifth Amendment takings rights,
- Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection rights.
What’s Move to Amend’s position
Move to Amend applauds the Transparent Election Initiative and hopes organizers collect enough signatures for the measure to qualify for the ballot — and that it passes in November 2026.
The Initiative represents an important democratic step forward, both culturally and legally. Culturally, it helps revive an awareness that was well understood by those early in our nation’s history: that people and the representatives they elect were meant to be superior to the corporate entities created under state law. Corporations were not originally institutions to be pleaded with, hoped for, or negotiated with; they were legal tools defined and authorized by state legislatures to obey the law, meet basic obligations, and serve the public good. As public officials seeking to maintain democratic control over corporations often put it, “The time has not yet arrived when the created is greater than the creator.”
The Montana Plan brings renewed attention to ideas that have long been overshadowed by modern corporate culture. At the very least, the Initiative offers a valuable educational opportunity for people in other states to learn more about the history and potential of corporate charters (both their issuance and their revocation) as democratic tools that belong in our collective civic toolkit, regardless of the eventual outcome of the Montana ballot measure.
Legally, the Transparent Election Initiative, if passed in Montana, would be an incredibly positive democratic contribution to reducing corporate power in our elections and, by extension, society. That’s why Move to Amend supporters in Montana support the plan, which we support wholeheartedly.
Yet, it’s important that the Initiative not be oversold. It will not make Citizens United irrelevant.
We believe the promoters of the Initiative understand its limits. While it’s reasonable and understandable to be enthusiastic about this “end run” around Citizens United, it’s nevertheless important to appreciate that the Initiative, even if passed in all 50 states, is not a “magic bullet” to solving the problem of the corrupting influence of money in elections.
Nevertheless, though this plan doesn’t do everything that our We the People Amendment would, it could lead to a massive reduction in corporate political spending and would be much easier to pass.
Move to Amend’s recommendations for action
Move to Amend in 2026 will encourage and assist interested supporters to learn more about this Initiative with other individuals and organizational allies as it complements our work to enact the We the People Amendment.
We will also encourage Move to Amend affiliates and advocates be actively involved in recruiting state legislators to pass resolutions calling on Congress to pass the the We the People Amendment and to change their state's corporate charters to remove the power of corporations to contribute or spend in elections or to support citizens Initiatives to change corporate charters.
In states with both Resolutions calling for Congress to pass the amendment to overturn Citizens United and an Initiative or legislation to change corporate charters, messaging is important:
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Messaging about the Transparent Election Initiative (or legislation)
- Will need to emphasize the immediate benefit of reining in corporate dark money by changing the corporate charter
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Will also need to build momentum for Resolutions in the legislature which call on Congress to pass the U.S. constitutional amendment to the states
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Messaging about the Resolutions calling on Congress to pass the U.S. constitutional amendment:
- Will need to explain what the Initiative does not do without deflating the importance of the immediate benefit of the Initiative.
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Will need to call on legislators
- to regain their right to govern the corporations that state government charters have created by passing the U.S. constitutional amendment to end corporate constitutional rights
- to end the corruption that is the result of the Court’s interpretation of money as speech.
The Transparent Election Initiative is an important democratic step toward enacting the We the People Amendment that would abolish the Judge-made constitutional doctrines that a corporation is a person and money equals free speech, which itself is one of many essential and urgently required constitutional changes.
