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Sixteen years ago, a United States Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United reversed the long-established restrictions on political spending by corporations. Since then, massive corporations—some with annual revenues exceeding the GDP of entire countries—have been allowed to use their money to influence American politics, vastly out-spending the small donations real American citizens are able to contribute to their preferred political candidates or movements.

Hawai'i may become the first state to put a stop to this anti-democratic practice by invoking a law from their state constitution that allows the state to regulate whether corporate entities can spend money in Hawai'i's politics. This would not impede on the rights of corporate entities in any way, it is simply limiting the powers of those entities. The distinction is very important. The state cannot tell corporations how to spend their money, but it can prohibit all corporations from spending money on politics within the state. Each state can regulate what powers corporations have in their state, and corporations that do not agree are not permitted to operate within the state. Corporations only exist in the state in which they are created, and are granted permission to operate in other states in accordance with the laws of those states they wish to operate in.

Montana is considering similar legislation based on a similar provision of its own charter. These states are seeking this path to eliminate Citizens United because the right-wing extremists in the Supreme Court would challenge any other attempts to undermine Citizens United. But by leaning on state law and the inherent rights of states to regulate business conducted in their own borders, political spending by corporations can be reigned in state-by-state instead of once for the entire nation.

Trump's tariff chart from 2025

Last year, Donny 2-Dolls invoked sweeping tariffs on almost every country in the world. On February 28, the Supreme Court ruled most of those tariffs illegal. The tariffs were revoked, and the money that American importers have already spent paying those tariffs is being reimbursed.

Never one to let a little thing like the law stand in his way, Trump simply created new tariffs to replace the ones struck down by the Supreme Court. This week, a federal court ruled that these new tariffs are also illegal. Donny doesn't get it, but the president simply does not have the authority to impose these types of sweeping tariffs. That's a power granted to Congress, not the president.

The federal court ruling is not the final word. Trump will likely appeal, and the case will be taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals and then likely on to the Supreme Court. So it will be a long time before we see a final ruling on the issue.