Occupy protesters target Super PAC ruling

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Occupy movement is protesting a 2-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cut restrictions on corporate spending for federal campaigns, protesters said.

Demonstrators planned to dress as justices and sing songs at the court in Washington on the anniversary of its decision in the case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, CNN reported.

The 2010 ruling made it legal for groups -- called Super PACs -- to raise and spend an unlimited amount of money for political campaigns as long as they don't coordinate with the candidates or contribute directly to their campaigns.

Protesters were expected at courthouses across the country for "Occupy the Courts" -- organized by a grassroots group called Move to Amend.

"Move to Amend volunteers across the USA will lead the charge on the judiciary which created -- and continues to expand -- corporate personhood rights," the Occupy the Courts Web site states.

In San Fransisco, Occupy activists called on homeowners going through foreclosure to join a mass protest Friday to disrupt the city's financial district.

"We're calling on every homeowner who's going through foreclosure to step up and occupy the financial district," Occupy Wall Street West activist Grace Martinez, 32, told United Press International ahead of a planned 12-hour series of demonstrations.

The demonstrations will be the largest occupation and street protest in the city's financial district since an anti-war protest March 20, 2003, the movement vowed -- although Martinez told UPI the expected protester number was "anyone's guess."

The protesters want the banks, which they say often sell foreclosed homes at far less than market value, to be willing to reduce home values to the amount the banks would receive if they sold the homes after foreclosure, and then base the homeowners' mortgages on the lower values, Martinez told UPI.

The San Francisco protests were also to include federal courthouse demonstrations.

"We will be occupying some courthouses to protest the undue influence of corporate money in our elections," activist Ted Gullicksen, 58, director of the tenants-rights San Francisco Tenants Union, told UPI.