Move to Amend

Move to Amend: End Corporate Rule. Legalize Democracy.

On January 21, 2010, 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.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United and other related cases, 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.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.

We Move to Amend.

". . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."

~Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010

Upcoming events

Monday, March 20, 2023 at 01:00 PM · 1 rsvp

Each Monday 1- 3 pm: Online in Saint Paul, MN

MINNESOTA: Weekly Work Session

The tasks vary depending upon the campaign: Pledge to Amend, Caucus Resolution, Summer Tabling, Passing Legislation, Imagining Real Democracy Education, etc. Tasks are started and sometimes completed during the Meet.

rsvp

Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 07:00 PM

FLORIDA: Statewide Coalition Monthly Meeting

Corporations are not People and money is not speech!

Join us in Moving Florida to Amend. The Florida state coalition meets on the fourth Thursday of the month at 7 pm EST.

Due to COVID -19, we are currently meeting through the Zoom Platform from 7:00-8:30 pm. EST.

For more information contact Jennie Spanos at [email protected]

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What's New

Hale v Henkel (2023)

Posted by · March 16, 2023 8:55 AM

Hale v. Henkel, probably one of the most cited cases (over 1,600 times), was decided by the United States Supreme Court on this day, in 1906.

...117 years later, Hale v Henkel keeps granting Corporations an ill-gotten right to privacy.

As we all know, Corporations are not mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution, but thanks to the rulings of activist Supreme Court Justices, Corporations hijacked the Constitution and Rights that were intended only for individuals. Hale v Henkel is a prime example.

In this case, the SCOTUS established the power of a federal grand jury engaged in an investigation into corporate misconduct to require the corporation in question to surrender its records.

The Ruling:

"An order for the production of books and papers may constitute an unreasonable search and seizure within the Fourth Amendment. While a search ordinarily implies a quest by an officer of the law, and a seizure contemplates a forcible dispossession of the owner, still the substance of the offense is the compulsory production of private papers, whether under a search warrant or a subpoena duces tecum, against which the person, be [an] individual or corporation, is entitled to protection."

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East Palestine Train Derailment Caused and Worsened by Real Democracy Derailment

Posted by · March 10, 2023 8:21 PM

March 9, 2023

By Greg Coleridge

The Norfolk Southern Corporation train derailment and subsequent hazardous chemical release into the air, water and land in and beyond East Palestine, Ohio are the inevitable result of multiple anti-democratic realities in the U.S. Many are interconnected and are the same for the roughly 1000 train derailments per year, most recently in Michigan.

Private ownership of railroads

Norfolk Southern Corporation's record earnings in 2022 led to huge salaries for its top managers and stock buybacks and dividend payouts benefiting speculators and investors. Necessary investments have not been made in technology upgrades and worker safety as the corporation prioritizes maximizing profits over public safety and sustainable business practices. "Since the North American private rail industry has shown itself incapable of doing the job, it is time for this invaluable transportation infrastructure - like the other transport modes - to be brought under public ownership," concludes the Railroad Workers United. Interstate highways are publicly owned. Railroads were under federal control during WWI. Railroads in many other nations are publicly owned and, therefore, publicly accountable.

No community rights

Local public officials have few legal tools to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents - especially conditions in any way related to interstate commerce. Communities possess little authority to control material - including trash, chemicals, nuclear waste - coming into or even passing through their jurisdictions by trains or trucks if that material can be defined as "commerce." The Constitution's Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) gives power to Congress and the President to "regulate commerce"among the several states." While states have at least some ability under certain conditions to push back against "commercial material" in their states if they can redefine it as dangerous, localities have no rights. East Palestine officials weren't even notified the derailed Norfolk Southern train was carrying vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate and other highly toxic chemicals since federal law doesn't classify those chemicals as "high hazardous."

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The Corporate Weaponization of the Federal Government

Posted by · February 14, 2023 8:37 PM

A subcommittee of the full House Judiciary Committee held a hearing last week on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government.” Two panels discussed the “politicization of the FBI and DOJ and attacks on American civil liberties.” It rehashed old grievances about how Trump and others were treated by the two agencies over the last few years.

If exposing and ending “weaponization of the government” is the target, then the Judiciary Committee should take aim at the single biggest culprit: corporations.

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Black/African American History includes Corporate Exploitation

Posted by · February 05, 2023 1:23 PM

Black/African American History observances this month will acknowledge people and events deserving to be remembered in the past and supported in the present in the quest for justice, and peace for all African Americans.