Hawaii's Power Play: SB 2471 Takes on Citizens United
Katie Phang
ICYMI listen up, because what just happened in Hawaii is the kind of bold, smart, state-level pushback against Big Money in politics that we desperately need right now.
On May 14, 2026, Governor Josh Green signed Senate Bill 2471 into law. Now called Act 011, the law states that corporations and other artificial entities created under Hawaii’s state laws do NOT have the power to spend money or contribute anything of value to influence elections or ballot measures. Instead, these business entities possess only the powers that are “necessary or convenient to carry out their lawful business or organizational purposes.”
This law is an in-your-face challenge to the post-Citizens United world where corporations have been playing God with our elections. What Hawaii basically said was: Corporations are NOT people, and we’re not letting them hijack our democracy anymore. And as a trial lawyer who spent years in courtrooms fighting for real accountability, I love this approach. It’s clever, constitutionally sound, and long overdue.
Just a quick refresher: in 2010, the United States Supreme Court shoved Citizens United v. FEC in our faces. In a 5-4 decision, the Court decided that corporations, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent political speech. That ruling gutted key parts of campaign finance reform and unleashed Super PACs, dark money nonprofits, and a flood of undisclosed cash into our elections, corrupting our political process.
https://katiephang.substack.com/p/hawaiis-power-play-sb-2471-takes
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