Corporations are not persons.
The U.S. Supreme Court has just said that they are.
Bad news for everyone around the world.
Ouch!
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CONTENTS
(1) THIS IS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY. THE LAWS DEFINING CORPORATIONS WILL CHANGE IF WE ALL PITCH IN TO HELP THE AMERICANS CHANGE THEIR CONSTITUTION – CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS. RAMP UP THE OPPOSITION TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION OF JAN. 21.
(2) IT’S EASY TO HELP
(3) RALPH NADER, SHREDDING DEMOCRACY – THE SUPREMES BOW TO KING CORPORATION
(4) RODRIGUE TREMBLAY, THE UNITED STATES OF CORPORATE AMERICA: FROM DEMOCRACY TO PLUTOCRACY
(5) LIST OF AMERICAN NGO’S THAT ARE RALLYING AGAINST “PERSONHOOD” U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION, CALLING FOR AMENDMENT TO THEIR CONSTITUTION.
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(1) THIS IS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY. THE LAWS DEFINING CORPORATIONS WILL CHANGE IF WE ALL PITCH IN TO HELP THE AMERICANS CHANGE THEIR CONSTITUTION – CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS. RAMP UP THE OPPOSITION TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION (JAN. 21).
The U.S. Supreme Court decision on January 21 gives corporations free spending on American political campaigns.
My initial reaction was “we are in reee-ally deep doo-doo”.
I say “we” because American corporate culture flows around the globe.
Now I am laughing! The Court decision is a solution served on a silver platter.
For a few years, I have been unable to fathom how on Earth we are ever going to rein in the power of the corporations. I have said “The corporations exist because they are defined by our laws. We have the power to change our laws.” Yeah but, how in hell are we going to change the laws that define corporations .. ?!
Joel Bakan’s book and documentary movie, “The Corporation” spell out the problem very nicely. Joel is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia.
Now here we have this outrageous U.S. Supreme Court decision. So outrageous that the Americans are mobilizing against it, like Canadians mobilized against the prorogation (suspension) of Parliament.
I want to shout in a voice that could carry on every wind: please, please we need to help the Americans who are fighting this U.S. Supreme Court decision – – sign onto their petitions no matter where on Earth you live. The outrage in America MUST win. If Americans lose this battle, we will all lose ground.
Let’s give them a hand!
/Sandra
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(2) IT’S EASY TO HELP
See #5 for websites you can go to.
If you happen to be on facebook, the FACEBOOK GROUP is called: “We the People” NOT “We the Corporations”
http://www.facebook.com/search/?o=69&init=s%3Agroup&q=we+the+people&search=Search+Groups#/group.php?gid=434489465093&ref=search&sid=563546922.686158345..1
There are 9,531 members AS OF January 24, 2010. I believe we should be able to get 3,000,000 people signed up.
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(3) RALPH NADER, “SHREDDING DEMOCRACY – THE SUPREMES BOW TO KING CORPORATION”
(Link no longer valid http://forums.eog.com/politics-and-government/citizens-united-vs-federal-election-commission-270330.html)
By RALPH NADER Weekend Edition January 22 – 24, 2010
WATCH: Corporate Campaign Ads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9wIEw5fZ0
Yesterday’s 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shreds the fabric of our already weakened democracy by allowing corporations to more completely dominate our corrupted electoral process. It is outrageous that corporations already attempt to influence or bribe our political candidates through their political action committees (PACs), which solicit employees and shareholders for donations.
With this decision, corporations can now directly pour vast amounts of corporate money, through independent expenditures, into the electoral swamp already flooded with corporate campaign PAC contribution dollars. Without approval from their shareholders, corporations can reward or intimidate people running for office at the local, state, and national levels.
Much of this 183 page opinion requires readers to enter into a fantasy world and accept the twisted logic of Justice Kennedy, who delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Alito, and Thomas. Imagine the majority saying the “Government may not suppress political speech based on the speaker’s corporate identity.”
Perhaps Justice Kennedy didn’t hear that the financial sector invested more than $5 billion in political influence purchasing in Washington over the past decade, with as many as 3,000 lobbyists winning deregulation and other policy decisions that led directly to the current financial collapse, according to a 231-page report titled: “Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America” (See: WallStreetWatch.org).
The Center for Responsive Politics reported that last year the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $144 million to influence Congress and state legislatures.
The Center also reported big lobbying expenditures by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) which spent $26 million in 2009. Drug companies like Pfizer, Amgen and Eli Lilly also poured tens of millions of dollars into federal lobbying in 2009. The health insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) also spent several million lobbying Congress. No wonder Single Payer Health insurance – supported by the majority of people, doctors, and nurses – isn’t moving in Congress.
Energy companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron are also big spenders. No wonder we have a national energy policy that is pro-fossil fuel and that does little to advance renewable energy (See: OpenSecrets.Org).
No wonder we have the best Congress money can buy.
I suppose Justice Kennedy thinks corporations that overwhelm members of Congress with campaign contributions need to have still more influence in the electoral arena. Spending millions to lobby Congress and making substantial PAC contributions just isn’t enough for a majority of the Supreme Court. The dictate by the five activist Justices was too much for even Republican Senator John McCain, who commented that he was troubled by their “extreme naivete.”
There is a glimmer of hope and a touch of reality in yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. Unfortunately it is the powerful 90 page dissent in this case by Justice Stevens joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor. Justice Stevens recognizes the power corporations wield in our political economy. Justice Stevens finds it “absurd to think that the First Amendment prohibits legislatures from taking into account the corporate identity of a sponsor of electoral advocacy.” He flatly declares that, “The Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation.”
He notes that the, Framers of our Constitution “had little trouble distinguishing corporations from human beings, and when they constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind.” Right he is, for the words “corporation” or “company” do not exist in our Constitution.
Justice Stevens concludes his dissent as follows:
“At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”
Indeed, this corporatist, anti-voter majority decision is so extreme that it should galvanize a grassroots effort to enact a simple Constitutional amendment to once and for all end corporate personhood and curtail the corrosive impact of big money on politics. It is time to prevent corporate campaign contributions from commercializing our elections and drowning out the voices and values of citizens and voters. It is way overdue to overthrow “King Corporation” and restore the sovereignty of “We the People”! Remember that corporations, chartered by the state, are our servants, not our masters.
Legislation sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representative John Larson (D-CT) would encourage unlimited small-dollar donations from individuals and provide candidates with public funding in exchange for refusing corporate contributions or private contributions of more than $100.
It is also time for shareholder resolutions, company by company, directing the corporate boards of directors to pledge not to use company money to directly favor or oppose candidates for public office.
If you want to join the efforts to rollback the corporate concessions the Supreme Court made yesterday, visit Citizen.Org and freespeechforpeople.org.
Ralph Nader is the author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a novel.
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(4) RODRIGUE TREMBLAY, THE UNITED STATES OF CORPORATE AMERICA: FROM DEMOCRACY TO PLUTOCRACY
By Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17142
Global Research, January 22, 2010
The New American Empire
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Plato, ancient Greek philosopher
…“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. Emeritus Professor of Linguistics
On Tuesday, January 19 (2010), the Obama administration got a kick in the pants from the Massachusetts voters when they filled former Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat by electing a conservative Republican candidate. The essence of their message was: stop dithering and start governing; stop trying to satisfy the bankers and please the editors of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, and start caring for the ordinary people.
Two days later, President Barack Obama seemed to have understood the people’s message when he announced a “Volcker rule” that will forbid large banks from owning hedge funds that make money by placing large bets against their own clients, using information that these same clients gave them. It was time. Such a policy should have been announced months ago, if not years ago.
On the same day, however, a nonelected body, the U.S. Supreme Court, threw a different challenge to the Obama administration. Indeed, on Thursday January 21 (2010), a Republican-appointed majority on the U.S. Supreme Court took it upon itself to profoundly change the U.S. Constitution and American democracy. Indeed, in what can be labeled a most reactionary decision, the Roberts U.S. Supreme Court, ruled that legal entities, such as corporations and labor unions, have the same purely personal rights to free speech as living individuals.
[http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/21/us/AP-US-Supreme-Court-Campaign-Finance.html?src=tptw]
Indeed, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution] says “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.
The only problem with such a wide interpretation of the U.S. Bills of Rights [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights] (N.B.: The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights) is that this runs contrary its letter and its spirit, since it clearly states later on that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the citizenry or States.” The words “people” and “citizenry” clearly refer here to living human beings, not to legal or artificial entities such as business corporations, labor unions, financial organizations or political lobbies.
Such entities, for example, cannot vote in an election. Indeed, laws governing voting rights in the United States clearly establish that only “Adult citizens of the United States who are residents of one of the 50 states have the right to participate fully in the political system of the United States”. No mention is made of corporations or other legal entities.
However, with its January 19 (2010) decision, the majority on the Roberts U.S. Supreme Court is saying in effect that even if artificial entities cannot vote in an election, they can spend as much money as they like to influence the outcome of an election. Money is speech for them, and the more a legal entity has of it, the more it has a right to become powerful politically and control the political agenda.
In fact, what Chief Justice Roberts and his conservative Supreme Court majority have done is to overcome a century-old democratic tradition in the United States in granting a constitutional right to business corporations and to banks, (because they are really the ones with a lot of money), to use their enormous resources to not only participate in debates about public issues, but also, and above all, to de facto dictate the election of candidates of their choice to public office.
That’s plutocracy, not democracy!
Plutocracy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy] is defined as a political system characterized by “the rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.” Democracy, on the other hand, is defined as a political system where political power belongs to the people. This means “a political government either carried out directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The terms “the power to the people” are derived from the words “people” and “power” in Greek.
This fundamental idea of democracy was well summarized by President Abraham Lincoln, in his 1863 Gettysburg Address, when he said that it is “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” This is a definition that is based on the basic democratic principle of equality among human beings.
But now, the Roberts Court’s decision must have made President Lincoln turn in his grave, because that decision, in effect, transfers political power from the living “people” to artificial corporate entities, with tons of money to spend. If Congress does not act quickly to reverse this decision, legal entities will be able to spend freely in the media to support or oppose political candidates for president and Congress, and this, as far as the last moment of a political campaign. This is quite something!
By a stroke of the pen, the Roberts Court has thus abolished the laws governing American electoral financing and removed limits to how much special money interests can spend to have the elected officials they want. The government they want will largely be “a government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.” Truly amazing!
To reflect the new political philosophy of the five-member majority of the Roberts Court, the Preambule of the U.S. Constitution [http://www.answers.com/topic/preamble-to-the-constitution] that says “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…” should, maybe, more appropriately be changed for “We, the business corporations of America…”
It is that much more ironic that the word “corporation” appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution or in the Bill of Rights. It is scarcely conceivable that the drafters of the Constitution had anything resembling corporate entities in mind when they drafted the Bill of Rights. But the Roberts Court majority does not seem to agree with Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Mason…etc. Because of their decision, the five conservative members of the U. S. Supreme Court of today have become the new Fathers of the U. S. Constitution.
For nearly a century, it has been assumed that the U.S. Bill of Rights protected persons, not corporations. Even if sometimes the courts have extended the rights of the14th Amendment banning the deprivation of property without due process or equal protection of the law to the property of corporations, it was never thought that the purely personal rights of the first Amendment of the Bill of Rights applied to corporate entities as well as to human beings. This is understandable. Business corporations are created through legislation that gives them potentially perpetual life and limited liability to enhance their efficiency as economic entities. While such characteristics can be beneficial in the economic sphere, they represent special dangers in the political sphere. That is the rationale for not extending constitutional rights to purely legal entities.
But now, the five-member majority of the Roberts Court have said that such legalized artificial entities have the same constitutionally protected rights to engage in political activities as living individuals.
This is clearly revolutionary or, more precisely, counter-revolutionary.
Rodrigue Tremblay [http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/author.htm] is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com.
He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Code for Global Ethics” at: http://www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/
© Copyright Rodrigue Tremblay , The New American Empire, 2010
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17142
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(5) LIST OF AMERICAN NGO’S THAT ARE RALLYING AGAINST “PERSONHOOD” U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION, CALLING FOR AMENDMENT TO THEIR CONSTITUTION.
—– Original Message —–
From: “Janet M Eaton” Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010
Subject: American NGO’s rally against “Personhood” decision by Supreme Court [re Corporate Power & Election spending] +PPt Ref
[1] http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/
Supreme Court throws its weight behind the corporations…
“Today’s Supreme Court opinion in Citizens United v. FEC opens the floodgates on unlimited corporate spending to influence elections and further entrenches corporate rule in our nation.
We demand mandatory public financing of state and federal elections and a constitutional amendment to deny corporations the false claim they’ve made to First Amendment free speech and other personhood rights. ”
[2] Public Citizen Take Action Sign Petition
http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190
“The court has put our democracy up for sale. Public Citizen is launching a historic campaign to pass a constitutional amendment to restore people to the center of the political process.”
(I submitted: “This is perhaps the peak of the battle. If we cannot win this one, the future looks black. … I say “we”. I am Canadian. Around the world we are fighting the same evil, the corporations. The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court must be overturned by an amendment to your Constitution. People from around the world need to pitch in and help you spread the word. In spirit and solidarity.”)
[3] The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund P.O. Box 2016, Chambersburg, PA 17201 www.celdf.org “today´s decision should be understood as just another brick in the wall, another step in a direction that will only continue unless and until a real movement for the rights of people, communities, and nature is built. That is the work we are doing. We hope you will join us. ”
[4] New Coalition Responds to Citizens United Decision with a Call to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Overrule the Supreme Court´s Activist Expansion of Corporate “Rights” www.movetoamend.org.
“After justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporate “rights” in the Citizens United case, a new national coalition of diverse public interest, community, and business organizations responded with a bold call to overrule the decision and amend the Constitution to restore the power of people over corporations, beyond election law. A complete list of the “Move to Amend” Steering Committee is attached. A list of other groups and people who have endorsed this new campaign is available at the coalition´s new website: www.movetoamend.org. More groups join daily.”
[5] From: “Liberty Tree” <office@libertytreefdr.org>
p.s. A Backgrounder on the Personhood Case and Corporate Rigths & Power can be found at:
http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/cac/corporatepower/
Scroll down to link for Power Point Presentation on Corporations and the Deterioration of Democracy SLIDE 53,54, 59 / 81
1886: A Turning Point
One of the most important Supreme Court cases you may never have heard of… Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled that a private corporation was a natural person, entitled to the same rights and protections as human beings under the Bill of Rights.
Since Santa Clara, those rights and privileges have been expanded to exceed those of the natural persons creating them.
By granting “personhood” rights to corporations, courts have allowed them to grow and maximize profits in ways that harm the environment, public health and democracy.
In 1886 alone, federal courts struck down 230 state laws regulating corporations. Corporations took advantage of laws written for human beings.
The 14th Amendment was passed to protect freed slaves. Of the 307 14th Amendment cases brought before the Supreme Court between 1890 and 1910: -19 dealt with African Americans -288 dealt with corporations
In latter years many groups in the US like SC, Alliance for Democracy, WILPF, Public Citizen, POCLAD, have worked to educate citizens about and to lobby against the personhood case and its implications of corporate rights and abuse of power.
Confronting Corporate Power
The Sierra Club has developed great expertise around advocating for environmental laws and regulations, but only recently has begun to examine the ways in which corporations use their power to influence lawmaking and control regulatory agencies. Yet it is in these ways that corporations harm the earth and its inhabitants. All the while, the wealth and power of transnational corporations have grown.
In the U.S., court decisions establishing legal doctrines such as Corporate Personhood have shifted power to corporations over natural persons by giving corporations constitutional protection. Corporations gain further power through international trade and investment rules that treat environmental laws as mere “barriers” to trade.
The consequences of concentrated corporate power are that many corporations despoil our forests, degrade the land, pollute the air and water, and resist public health regulations. Concentrated corporate media ownership limits political debate, the diversity of viewpoints presented, and media access. As a result, corporations wield enormous political and electoral power.
The Confronting Corporate Power Task Force seeks to:
Examine the nature of the corporation from legal, economic, and political perspectives
Explore the history of how corporations acquired such wealth and power
Investigate how corporate power affects Sierra Club concerns
Develop tools that can be used to hold corporations accountable and to redefine the relationship between citizens and corporations
Educate Sierra Club members and citizens about how to use these tools effectively
Corporations and the Deterioration of Democracy powerpoint presentation for use with a wider audience)
Corporate Power and the Sierra Club (powerpoint presentation)
Model Legal Brief to Eliminate Corporate Rights (amicus brief and resolution)
How to Pass an Ordinance/Resolution (pdf file)
Manual for revoking corporate charters rft file)
RECOMMENDED READING, CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT:
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
When Corporations Rule the World, by David C. Korten
Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy: A Book of History and Democracy, POCLAD, edited by Dean Ritz
The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, by Joel Bakan
The Case Against the Global Economy, by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith
Who Rules America Now?, by G. William Domhoff
The Power Elite, by C. Wright Mills
Wealth and Democracy, by Kevin Phillips
The Great Transformation, the Political and Economic Origins of our Time, by Karl Polanyi
The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, by David Korten
American Democracy in Peril, by William Hudson
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[1] http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/
Supreme Court throws its weight behind the corporations…
Citizens United: SCOTUS decision says corporations are people, money is speech, and our democracy is up for sale
Today’s Supreme Court opinion in Citizens United v. FEC opens the floodgates on unlimited corporate spending to influence elections and further entrenches corporate rule in our nation.
This 5-4 decision overturns previous Court decisions that banned corporate “independent expenditures,” thereby scrapping campaign finance regulations in 22 states and establishing “fee-for-service” politics as the law of the land.
From our founding, the Alliance for Democracy has stood for public funding for elections and against the legal fiction of corporate personhood. Now we call on the American people to stand up and take back our democracy and its laws from corporate rule. We demand mandatory public financing of state and federal elections and a constitutional amendment to deny corporations the false claim they’ve made to First Amendment free speech and other personhood rights.
Continuing our work against corporate rule, and in anticipation of this decision, Alliance for Democracy has joined the steering committee of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy. We urge you to visit www.MovetoAmend.org for more information about this coalition effort to amend the Constitution to protect our rights as human persons, communities, and voters.
Read our statement on the decision here and see our AfD Corporate Person Home Page for up-to-date:
Information and links on this case and the issue of corporate personhood Analysis and observations from the media Videos on the case and implications for democracy
The Alliance for Democracy
PO Box 540115, Waltham, MA 02454 781-894-1179 * www.thealliancefordemocracy.org
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[2] http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190
PUbilc Citizen Take Action / Sign Petition
As we told you in an email this morning, the Supreme Court today allowed corporations to use their immense wealth to take over our elections.
The court has put our democracy up for sale.
Public Citizen is launching a historic campaign to pass a constitutional amendment to restore people to the center of the political process. Join our grassroots mobilization to take back our democracy. The more people who join, the more power we have to fight a corporate takeover.
Forward this email to everyone you know who recognizes that letting unlimited corporate cash into our elections will be a catastrophe.
Click here to watch a short video about the ruling and Public Citizen’s response to it. And sign our petition calling for a constitutional amendment to prevent corporate money from overwhelming our democracy.
The shocking decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission struck down 60 years of legal precedent prohibiting corporations from making campaign expenditures to attack or support political candidates. The court ruled that the First Amendment – meant to protect the speech of actual human beings – gives for-profit corporations the right to influence elections.
People or corporations?
Corporations are not human beings. Corporations should not be able to use their vast financial power to drown out the voices of real people.
Forward this email to friends, family, neighbors and coworkers to let them know about our campaign to fight unfettered corporate power.
Then watch the video and sign the petition.
Please help me spread the word and build a massive movement to save our democracy.
Forward this email. Watch the video. Sign the petition.
Thank you.
Robert Weissman, President
Contribute | © 2010 Public Citizen | Take Action
http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190
Don’t Get Rolled: Take Action
Public Citizen
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations are entitled to spend unlimited funds in our elections, rolling back a century of modest limits. The First Amendment was never intended to protect corporations.
This cannot stand. Join our campaign to protest this decision.
Protect our democracy! Two things that can be done now:
1) Fair Elections Now Act: Give congressional candidates a public financing alternative to elections bankrolled by corporations. Also fix the presidential public financing system.
2) Shareholder Accountability: Give shareholders a say over corporate spending in elections.
But ultimately, we must pass a constitutional amendment to ensure corporate money does not overwhelm our democracy and clarify that the First Amendment is for people — not corporations. Add your name to the petition to Congress today!
FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE AMENDMENT PETITION:
WHEREAS the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations;
WHEREAS, for the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has transformed the First Amendment into a powerful tool for corporations seeking to evade and invalidate democratically-enacted reforms;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court´s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC overturned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from spending their general treasury funds in our elections;
WHEREAS, this corporate takeover of the First Amendment has reached its extreme conclusion in the United States Supreme Court´s recent ruling in Citizens United v. FEC;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court´s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC will now unleash a torrent of corporate money in our political process unmatched by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court´s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC presents a serious and direct threat to our democracy;
WHEREAS, the people of the United States have previously used the constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and self-government;
Now hereby be it resolved that we the undersigned voters of the United States call upon the United States Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to restore the First Amendment and fair elections to the people.
Learn More The Problem The Solutions
Constitutional Amendment FAQ
The Supreme Court’s Decision (.pdf)
What we told the Supreme Court (.pdf)
Statement of Public Citizen’s president Press statements Get the latest from CitizenVox blog
Take Action
Sign the Free Speech for People Amendment Petition Tell Congress to support the solutions Protest Spread the word Stay informed
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[3] The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 2016, Chambersburg, PA 17201
www.celdf.org
CONTACT: Mari Margil
(503) 381 1755
mmargil AT celdf.org
January 21, 2010
Legal Defense Fund: Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United Case
“Inevitable”
Continues Long History of Expansion of Corporate Rights over the
Rights of People, Communities,
and Nature
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is the only public interest law firm in the U.S. that has worked with municipalities to question whether corporate “rights” can coexist with the democratic rights of communities to local self-government.
Those communities have recognized that corporate rights and privileges are routinely wielded to override democratic decision making and undermine efforts to protect the environment and public health, local economies and local agriculture. Through the adoption of local, binding laws, these communities are pioneering a new structure of law which does not recognize the rights and privileges of corporations.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Decision
Today´s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – giving corporations the ability to spend money directly to influence federal elections under the Constitution´s First Amendment – was inevitable. It represents a logical expansion of corporate constitutional “rights” – which include the rights of persons which have been judicially conferred upon corporations. “Personhood” rights mean that corporations possess First Amendment rights to free speech, along with a litany of other rights that are secured to persons under the federal Bill of Rights.
The expansion of corporate rights and privileges under the law has been deliberate, beginning nearly two hundred years ago with the Dartmouth decision in which the Supreme Court ruled that private corporations have rights that municipal corporations – governments composed of “we the people” – did not.
The expansion of these rights and privileges occurred during the 1800s, throughout the 1900s, until today. For those who think that the way to stem this tide is to find the perfect lawsuit, we say, stop looking. It doesn´t exist, for there is no magic bullet.
Rather, in order to reverse decisions like Citizens United, the whole concept of corporate “rights” must be examined, and how corporations possessing “rights” interferes with the exercise of rights by people, communities, and nature. And, it´s not simply that corporations have “personhood” rights. It goes well beyond that.
Today´s structure of law gives corporations a spectrum of legal and constitutional rights which they routinely wield against people, communities, and nature. Corporations have more rights, for example, than the communities in which they seek to do business. They have rights which they use to lobby Congress, impact elections, to decide for us what we eat, whether mountaintops are blown off or not, whether there are fish in the oceans, and on and on. Coupling their wealth with constitutional and other legal rights guarantees that they write the laws which determine these things, along with defining the debate that leads to the adoption of the new laws.
Thus the context for understanding today´s decision is that we have a minority set of corporate interests, empowered by government, which wield their rights against a majority. It is the history of this nation. Whether with the Abolitionists, the Suffragists, the Civil Rights Movement – all found it necessary to build movements of people to drive rights into law – rights for slaves, rights for women, rights of African Americans – which necessarily meant eliminating rights for a minority such as the slaveholder. In the end, it is our constitutional structure of law that purposefully placed the rights of property and commerce over the rights of people, communities, and nature.
In some ways, the Citizens United ruling is merely part of a predetermined destiny set by a 1700´s constitutional structure which placed greater priority on the rights of property and commerce than on people and nature. Reversing Citizens United means reversing that constitutional legacy.
And today – those who recognize that we do not have democracy when corporations located thousands of miles away are making decisions about our community instead of us, who recognize that we cannot have sustainability so long as corporations are able to decide how clean our air is and our water is, who recognize that we´ll never have true health care reform so long as corporations have greater access to our elected representatives than the people who voted for them – to those people -today´s decision should be understood as just another brick in the wall, another step in a direction that will only continue unless and until a real movement for the rights of people, communities, and nature is built. That is the work we are doing. We hope you will join us.
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[4] New Coalition Responds to Citizens United Decision with a Call to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Overrule the Supreme Court´s Activist Expansion of Corporate “Rights” www.movetoamend.org.
For immediate release
Contact: (202) 642 1848 or (707) 362 0333
Washington, DC-After justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporate “rights” in the Citizens United case, a new national coalition of diverse public interest, community, and business organizations responded with a bold call to overrule the decision and amend the Constitution to restore the power of people over corporations, beyond election law. A complete list of the “Move to Amend” Steering Committee is attached. A list of other groups and people who have endorsed this new campaign is available at the coalition´s new website: www.movetoamend.org. More groups join daily.
“This decision is Pearl Harbor for our democracy,” said Ben Manski, Executive Director of Liberty Tree and a lawyer helping to lead the coalition. “Decades of judicial activism culminating in today´s decision have eroded the power of `We the People´ to govern ourselves. Our move to amend the Constitution is not limited to the powers of the Federal Election Commission, but focuses on the broader implications of the decision.”
“We are inspired by historic social movements that recognized the necessity of altering fundamental power relationships,” added Riki Ott, the Director of Ultimate Civics and a marine toxicologist whose activism was galvanized by the Exxon Valdez spill. “America has always progressed through ordinary people joining together-from the Revolutionaries to Abolitionists, Suffragists, Trade Unionists, and Civil Rights activists.”
“In this decision, a handful of unelected judges have revealed their agenda to expand the influence of corporations at the expense of the rights of individuals, and it will not stand the test of time,” said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and former Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and Deputy Assistant Attorney General. “Corporations aren´t people and simply don´t deserve the same rights as people; we have to work together to put people before corporations.”
“The movement we are launching is a long-term effort to make the U.S. Constitution more democratic,” noted David Cobb, of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County. “We are a diverse coalition with deep roots in communities nationwide. We recognize that amending the Constitution to restore the power of the people over corporations will not be easy, but it must be done.”
### (See page two for the coalition´s Steering Committee and contact information)
New Coalition Responds to Citizens United Decision with a Call to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Overrule the Supreme Court´s Activist Expansion of Corporate “Rights”
Page two
FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact the Move to Amend Steering Committee:
Ben Manski, Liberty Tree (www.libertytree.org), (202) 642 1848, Manski AT LibertyTreeFDR.org
Riki Ott, PhD, Ultimate Civics (www.ultimatecivics.org), (907) 424 3915, otter2 AT ak.net
Lisa Graves, Center for Media and Democracy (www.prwatch.org), (608) 26 9713, lisa AT prwatch.org
David Cobb, Program on Corporations Law & Democracy (www.poclad.org), (707) 362 0333, david AT duhc.org
George Friday, National Director of Independent Progressive Politics Network (www.ippn.org) (862) 668 8172, ippn AT igc.org
Marybeth Gardam, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom Corporations vs. Democracy Committee Leadership Team (www.wilpf.org),
(515) 210 7928, mbgardam AT gmail.com
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (www.duhc.org) (707) 269 0984, kaitlin AT duhc.org
Nancy Price, Alliance for Democracy (www.thealliancefordemocracy.org) (781) 894 1179 or (530) 758 0726, nancytprice AT juno.com David Swanson, After Downing Street, (202) 329 7847, david AT davidswanson.org
[5] From: “Liberty Tree” <office AT libertytreefdr.org>
Subject: OUTRAGE: Court says corporations are people: Join the move to amend! Date sent: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:54:54 -0600
URGENT CALL TO ACTION FROM HOWARD ZINN, THOM HARTMANN, MEDEA BENJAMIN, FRAN & DAVID KORTEN, BILL MCKIBBEN, BILL FLETCHER, JIM HIGHTOWER, TOM HAYDEN, REV. YEARWOOD, & MORE
They’ve gone after our tax dollars. Our services. Our jobs. Our schools. Our military. Our votes. Our future. Our freedoms. And the federal courts have helped them every step of the way. Today, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
We Move to Amend.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:
Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments.
Adrienne Maree Brown, Ruckus Society Alec Loorz, Kids vs Global Warming Andrew Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment Andy Gussert, Citizens Trade Campaign Anne Feeney, musician Ben Manski, attorney, Exec. Director, Liberty Tree Benno Friedman, photographer Benson Scotch, former Staff Counsel to Sen.
Leahy, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Bill Fletcher, Exec. Editor, BlackCommentator.com Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org Bill Moyer, Backbone Campaign Brad Friedman, Publisher, The BRAD BLOG Brad Thacker, Be The Change USA Brett Kimberlin, Director, Justice Through Music Brian McLaren, Christian activist & author Carl Davidson, Progressive America Rising Carolyn Oppenheim, Shays 2 Charlie Cray, Center for Corporate Policy Dal LaMagna, founder, Tweezerman, Inc.
Dave Wells, formerly Board of Directors, Sierra Club David Cobb, initiator of 2004 Ohio Recount David Gespass, president, National Lawyers Guild David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World David Rovics, musician David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org David Wells, Jr., Nashville Urban Harvest Dean Myerson, Executive Director, Green Institute Diane Wittner & Margaret Flowers, Chesapeake Citizens Dr. Jill Stein, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts Ed Garvey, attorney at law, editor, FightingBob.com Emily Levy, Velvet Revolution Fran Korten, Editor, YES! Magazine Frank Arundel, activist Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action George Friday, National Coordinator, IPPN George Martin, United for Peace & Justice Georgia Kelly, Praxis Peace Institute Glen Ford, Executive Editor, BlackAgendaReport.com Greg Coleridge, NE OH American Friends Service Committee Howard Zinn, historian Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western State Legal Foundation James Gustave Speth, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos Jan Edwards, writer Jane Anne Morris, author, Gaveling Down The Rabble Jeff Cohen, founder, FAIR Jeff Milchen, founder, ReclaimDemocracy.org Jeffrey Short, Ph.D., Pacific Science Director, OCEANA Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for a New America Jill Bussiere, Co-Chair, Green Party of the U.S. James M. Cullen, editor of The Progressive Populist
Jim Hightower, author, columnist, and radio commentator Joel Bleifuss, Editor & Publisher, In These Times John E. Peck, Executive Director, Family Farm Defenders John Nichols, Washington Correspondent, The Nation John Rensenbrink, President, Green Horizon Foundation John Stauber, author, Weapons of Mass Deception Jonathan Frieman, social entrepreneur Josh Healey, Youth Speaks Josh Lerner, The New School for Social Research Josh Silver, Executive Director, Free Press Judith Pedersen-Benn, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community Kai Huschke, Envision Spokane Kaitlin Sopoci- Belknap, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County Ken Reiner, inventor and founder, Kaynar Corp. Kevin Danaher, Executive Co-Producer, Green Festivals Kevin Zeese, Executive Director, TrueVote.US Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Bring the Guard Home! It’s the Law. Lewis Pitts, Lawyer, Legal Aid of NC Lisa Graves, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy Lori Price, Managing Editor, Citizens for Legitimate Government Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director, The Praxis Project Margo Baldwin, Publisher, Chelsea Green Mark Crispin Miller, author, Fooled Again Mary Zepernick, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy Marybeth Gardam, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Matt Nelson, Just Cause Matt Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive Medea Benjamin, co-founder, Code Pink Michael Albert, Z Communications Michael Bonnano, OpEdNews Michael Marx, Corporate Ethics International Michael Shuman, attorney, economic, author of “The Small-Mart Revolution” Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace Mimi Kennedy, actress, activist Miriam Simos, Starhawk, activist and writer Nancy Price, Alliance for Democracy Nick Pavloff, Jr., Gulf of Alaska Aleut from Kodiak Island Norman Solomon, author, co-chair, Healthcare Not Warfare campaign Patrick Reinsborough, SmartMeme Paul Saginaw, founder, Zingerman’s, Inc. Prof. Peter Gabel, School of Law, New College of California Prof. Victor Wallis, Managing Editor, Socialism & Democracy Rabbi Arthur Waskow Rep.
Michael Fisher, House of Representatives, Vermont Rev. Edward Pinkney, Black Autonomy Network Community Organization Rev. Lennox Yearwood, President, Hip Hop Caucus Richard Mazess, Prof. Medical Physics, UW-Madison, CEO of Lunar Corp & Bone Care Intl. Riki Ott, Executive Director, Ultimate Civics Robert McChesney, professor, co- author, The Death and Life of American Journalism Ronnie Cummins, founder, Grassroots Netroots Alliance Sally Castleman, Election Defense Alliance Sam Smith, Editor, Progressive Review Sarah Manski, CEO, PosiPair.com Shahid Buttar, Rule of Law Institute Ted Glick, climate change activist Ted Nace, author, Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power Thom Hartmann, nation’s #1 nationally syndicated progressive talk show host Tia Oros & Christopher Peters, Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development Tiffiniy Cheng, Executive Director, A New Way Forward Tim Carpenter, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America Tom Hayden, activist Ward Morehouse, chair, National Lawyers Guild’s Committee on Corporations * organizations listed for identification purposes only 122 State Street Suite 405 | Madison, WI 53703 US
