Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Tuesday, Los Angeles voted to end corporate personhood | The Raw Story:
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to support a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would assert that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights, and that money is not the same as free speech.
The resolution was backed by Move to Amend, a national coalition working to abolish corporate personhood and overturn U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling. The decision gave corporations and unions the ability to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, so long as their actions are not coordinated with a candidate’s campaign.
“Move to Amend’s proposed amendment would provide the basis for overturning the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,” stated Mary Beth Fielder, Co-Coordinator of LA Move to Amend. “The Supreme Court has no legitimate right to grant people’s rights to corporations. We must clearly establish that it is we, The People, who are meant to rule.”
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Move to Amend hopes that to get similar resolutions approved across the nation through city councils and direct vote by ballot initiative.
“Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” stated Mary Beth Fielder, Co-Coordinator of LA Move to Amend. “The American people are behind us on this and these campaigns help our federal representatives see that we mean business. Our very democracy is at stake. Our goal is for 50 towns and cities to put Move to Amend’s resolution [model language] on the ballot for the Presidential election in November, 2012.”
Democratic Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Michael Bennet of Colorado have introduced a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United by granting Congress and the states the authority to regulate the campaign finance system. The amendment would not dictate any specific policies or regulations, Udall said, so that it could garner some support from Republicans, who have blocked attempts to overturn the ruling in the past.
Last month I told you about the The OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United:
Deutch’s amendment, called the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment, would overturn the Citizens United decision, re-establishing the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance laws, and to effectively outlaw the ability of for-profit corporations to contribute to campaign spending.
Also in November, the citizens of Boulder, Colorado voted for the Move to Amend resolution 3-1, Boulder Votes for a Constitutional Amendment to Abolish Corporate Personhood. and the citizens of Missoula, Montana also voted for the resolution 3-1. Missoula Voters Say Corporations Are Not People, Demand Constitutional Amendment.
David Cobb, a former Green Party candidate for president who leads the Move to Amend campaign, recently met with 11 state senators who agreed to support a Vermont resolution calling on Congress to initiate the process. Vermont's Push to End Corporate Personhood:
Both Move to Amend and the Vermont Progressive Party want to put corporate personhood-related questions on the ballot for Town Meeting day in March.
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The amendment resolution introduced in Vermont last year by Sen. Virginia Lyons, the first of its kind in the country, proposes “an amendment to the United States Constitution that provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”
Corporate profits and institutional survival “are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,” it states. Corporations have used “so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws,” and governments have become “ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies.”
The resolution also points out that large corporations own most of the country’s mass media and use them to “convince Americans that the primary role of human beings is that of consumer rather than sovereign citizens with democratic rights and responsibilities.” With all that in mind, it concludes that the way forward is amendment of the Constitution “to define persons as human beings.”
Cobb calls the resolution a historic document and praised Lyons for showing leadership during the last session. “This is the first state to introduce at the legislative level a statement of principles that corporations are not persons and do not have constitutional rights,” he explained back in January. “It’s the beginning of a revolutionary action completely and totally within the legal framework.”
As I have explained in several posts over the years, the only way to reverse the damage done by the "Felonious Five" conservative activist judges of the U.S. Supreme Court is by amending the U.S. Constitution. It is a long hard road to amend the Constitution and can take a long time, but this issue enjoys the support of around 75% of persons polled in poll after poll. The only opposition comes from corporations and their bought and paid for think tanks, media echo chamber and politicians.
If you want to end "money is speech," Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and its progeny, and "corporations are people" with superior rights to individuals, Citizens United v. FEC (2010), this is the only way to effectively do it.
So here is an action plan:
1. Contact your town or city council members and ask them to put this resolution on the agenda for discussion. Citizens then lobby your council members to pass the resolution. Failing that, you will need to file for a referendum and to collect enough signatures to refer it to the ballot.
2. Contact your state legislators and ask them to cosponsor this resolution in the Arizona legislature. In fact, I would hope that the Democratic Caucus would have the good sense to all cosponsor this resolution and to demand that it be heard in committee and voted upon in both chambers of the legislature. Failing that, you will need to file for a referendum and to collect enough signatures to refer it to the ballot.
3. The legal fiction of "corporate personhood" should be a litmus test issue for all politicians in 2012. (For the most thorough examination of the fraud perpetrated by the Court in Santa Clara County v. So. Pacific R.R. (1886) in creating the legal fiction of "corporate personhood," read Thom Hartmann's book "Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and the theft of human rights").
The question that every politician should be required to answer is "Do you support amending the U.S. Constitution to clarify that the rights, privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States under the U.S. Constitution are limited to human beings?" If they answer no, they are unworthy of your vote.
Activists are holding house parties to plan for a “day of action” on Jan. 21, the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision.
The day before that, a Friday, Move to Amend will help to organize rallies at more than a third of the country’s federal courts, including the Supreme Court, in many cases while they are in session.
January 20, 2012: Move to Amend Occupies the Courts!
Inspired by our friends at Occupy Wall Street, and Dr. Cornel West, Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision!
Occupy the Courts will be a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday January 20, 2012.
Move to Amend volunteers across the USA will lead the charge on the judiciary which created — and continues to expand — corporate personhood rights.
Americans across the country are on the march, and they are marching OUR way. They carry signs that say, “Corporations are NOT people! Money is NOT Speech!” And they are chanting those truths at the top of their lungs! The time has come to make these truths evident to the courts.
Join us Friday, January 20, 2012 at a Federal Court building near you!
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