Luke Lorenz of Herndon is the director of legislative affairs for a military-focused nonprofit organization and a volunteer for Money Out Virginia. He served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army with missions in EUCOM and CENTCOM. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

Saturday is Constitution Day. In 1787, the states ratified the U.S. Constitution, establishing a democratic republic. Throughout our history, the Constitution through the amendment process has served as a vehicle to ensure our civil rights. Constitutional amendments that were used to reverse Supreme Court rulings included banning slavery, giving women and 18-year-olds the right to vote and allowing the popular election of U.S. Senators.

Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, the day marking the beginning of a democratic republic, an experiment which placed the government in the hands of the people and outlined the individual liberties guaranteed to its citizens. The signing of this document commemorated the end of a struggle for freedom from overseas tyranny. Yet the struggle for political equality has been the storyline of our history. It required amending the Constitution numerous times, to ban slavery, allow women and 18-year-olds the right to vote, ensure direct election of Senators or ban the poll tax which impeded access to the ballot.

Citizens of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District have reason to celebrate. Rep. Abigail Spanberger recently announced her sponsorship of a resolution to curtail big money in our political system with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Amending the Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling will strengthen our democracy dramatically. Federal and state legislatures will regain reasonable power to combat corruption, restore ethics and put accountability back into our political process.

Virginia’s venerable General Assembly has mostly wrapped up. And though our legislature has served the commonwealth well over its more than 400-year history, our current campaign finance laws are missing in action.

The senseless invasion of Ukraine reminds us of how important an effective democracy is in preventing government overreach. When politicians don’t need to answer to the people, corruption and disorder ensue. As a political science major at Virginia Tech, I feel a moral imperative to ensure that our legislators, whether in Congress or in the Virginia General Assembly, take the high ground in passing good governance legislation.

Investing in bipartisan good governance bills? Sadly, not this year.

We’ve just had the most expensive election in the history of the commonwealth. This heightened Virginians’ strong disapproval of our feeble campaign finance laws.

Whether you like them or loathe them, there’s no question that Virginia’s new voting maps will shake up the state’s General Assembly and congressional delegation. Many legislators have been drawn out of the districts they’ve represented or been grouped into districts with one or more other incumbents. Given Virginia’s feeble campaign finance laws, our next ethics question is: Will our future legislators answer to the constituents of their new districts or to the same huge financial backers who influenced their predecessors?