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Jeff Clements

Jeff Clements is a founder and president of American Promise, which is uniting Americans to combat systemic corruption and protect our voice, votes, communities and future with a For Our Freedom Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment authorizes limits and regulation of the deployment of money to influence local, state and federal elections. Jeff has been as a partner at a large law firm based in Boston and in his own firm. He also has served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection in the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts. Among other major litigation, Clements filed briefs in the Supreme Court and other courts in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and other cases defending anti-corruption laws. He is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy from Big Money & Global Corporations and his work has appeared in various media. Clements also is a founder of Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides sustainable financing to businesses in the local agriculture economy.
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    The myth of the 'unamendable' Constitution

    Jeff Clements
    https://twitter.com/clementsjeff?lang=en
    December 06, 2022
    constitutional amendments

    Clearly the Constitution can be amended, writes Clements: "Every generation has had to do this."

    Benjamin Clapp/Getty Images

    Clements is the president of American Promise, a nonprofit advocate for amending the Constitution to allow more federal and state regulation of money in politics.

    Let’s face it: To unite Americans and renew our democracy and republican form of government, we need to amend the Constitution — again.

    Why should we expect any less? Every generation has had to do this.

    Millions of Americans alive today participated in winning constitutional amendment campaigns. Those amendments ended the discriminatory and racist poll tax; gave District of Columbia residents the right to vote in presidential elections; enfranchised millions of young Americans who were “old enough to fight, old enough to vote;” and stabilized our government with a succession plan and provisions for an incapacitated president.

    Not bad; four constitutional amendments in just a decade between 1961 and 1971. Boomers may get their share of criticism but this historic achievement can stand up to any generation’s accomplishments.

    Perhaps they learned it from their grandparents. A generation earlier, Americans ratified four constitutional amendments between 1913 and 1920: voting rights for women; senators elected by the people; fundamental tax reform and, well OK, prohibition. Another amendment 10 years later ended prohibition.

    Things must have been easier then, right? Americans and our politics must have been less divided, or there must have been some lost magic trick in the Constitution to make amendments more achievable. We can’t do that anymore, right?

    Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

    No, none of that is true.

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    What to expect at the National Citizen Leadership Conference

    Jeff Clements
    https://twitter.com/clementsjeff?lang=en
    September 09, 2022
    National Citizen Leadership Conference

    The National Citizen Leadership Conference includes a Citizen Lobby Day on Capitol Hill.

    American Promise

    Clements is the president of American Promise, a nonprofit advocate for amending the Constitution to allow more federal and state regulation of money in politics.

    "Freedom, unity, and civic courage." That’s the theme of American Promise’s National Citizen Leadership Conference coming up in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28-29.

    This is the fifth annual NCLC, now a highlight of the growing nonpartisan/bipartisan reform movement. American Promise’s co-sponsors include Bridge Alliance, Bridge USA, Open Secrets, the Millennial Action Project, Citizen Data, The People,the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, the Partnership for American Democracy and more. Registration is expected to fill, with attendees signing up from nearly every state.

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