If you already voted or will tomorrow, you know that elections involve boxes. It may be the box where you drop your ballot outside a Board of Elections headquarters. It might be the 3-sided box stand where you place your ballot to vote in private. Or it could be the secure receptacle where your completed ballot is transported from your voting location to the country Board of Elections for tabulation.

But there’s still another box that involves elections, actually more like the winners of elections. That’s the ever diminishing space elected officials face on all sides to govern, especially if their goal is to genuinely serve the public interest and to ensure a livable natural world. 

The U.S. Constitution boxes in the actions of public officials and, for that matter, all of us. It delineates the extent of our democratic space, rights and responsibilities. Its size has expanded when many Constitutional Amendments like abolishing slavery and the poll tax and granting women the right to vote were passed following broad peoples’ movements. The box has also been enlarged following Constitutional interpretations by the Supreme Court.

But other Supreme Court interpretations have vastly decreased our democratic space – the box that was never was very large to begin with since We the People have never included all the people.

Many of those interpretations involved Supreme Court rulings affirming the power and rights of corporations over the power and rights of citizens and workers. Following each Supreme Court decision, our democratic space contracted. The democratic box became smaller.

Examples:

1819 – Corporate perversion of the Contract Clause
Dartmouth College v. Woodward – A corporate charter is ruled to be a contract and can’t be altered by the government. States had less flexibility to use corporate charters as tools to define corporate actions.

1875 – Corporate perversion of the Commerce Clause
Welton v. State of Missouri – The Supreme Court begins a century-long effort to frame every corporate action as a form of “interstate commerce” – which overrules the police power of cities and states to uphold their duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their communities. 

1886 – Corporate perversion of the 14th Amendment
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad – Corporations are in effect granted equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.  Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Lee (1933) – Florida voters passed a law that levied higher taxes on chain stores than on locally owned stores. The Supreme Court overturned the law citing the due process and equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the Interstate Commerce clause.

1906 – Corporate perversion of the 4th Amendment
Hale v. Henkel – Corporations get 4th Amendment “search and seizure” protection. The public no longer has the ability to publicly inspect corporate books and records to ensure accountability. A 1978 decision, Marshall v. Barlow, prohibited OSHA inspectors from doing surprise public inspections.

1922 – Corporate perversion of the 5th Amendment
Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon – A regulation is deemed a taking. A corporation subject to certain regulations has to be compensated for lost future profits. 

1974 – Corporate perversion of the 1st Amendment – right not to speak
Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo – Corporations granted the right NOT to speak. They don’t have to reveal information, even if that information is important for public safety (i.e. toxins in food).

1980 – Corporate perversion of the 1st Amendment – commercial speech
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., v. Public Utilities Comm’n – Corporate “commercial speech” rights (to increase profits) preempted the state’s right to protect the welfare of its residents.

1978 – Corporate perversion of the 1st Amendment – political free speech
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti – U.S. constitutional law case defines the free speech right of corporations for the first time – the right to spend on issue campaigns.

2010 – Corporate perversion of the 1st Amendment – free speech is expanded
Citizens United vs FEC – The ability to influence elections via money from wealthy individuals and corporations is expanded beyond the First National Bank of Boston decision and the 1976 Buckley v Valeo decision that equated political money spent in elections as free speech. Corporate entities and individuals can now make unlimited independent expenditures for political campaigns.

Our current democratic “box” or space is small. Many believe that the only solution required to end corporate rule and the corrupting influence of money in elections is to simply reverse Citizens United, end corporate political free speech and/or end “money is speech.” But did we actually have an authentic democracy prior to Citizens United? 

Reversing Citizens United is not enough. Needed is to enact the We the People Amendment (HJR54) to abolish ALL corporate constitutional rights and money defined as free speech. Rights should be for people…and many people nature as well, but certainly not for a corporation.

It's up to us to educate, advocate and organize to enlarge our democratic space in every direction. More publicly accountable and community-rooted elected officials are needed. And more grassroots actions resisting laws threatening our right to decide are essential. But we must also break free from the constitutional limitations to greater self-rule.

Your ongoing interest and support for working collectively beyond elections is more important than ever to create a movement affirming the rights of people over those of corporate entities.

In solidarity,

Katie, Keyan, Jason, Alfonso, Cole, Jennie, Tara, Shelly, George, Michael, Daniel, Margaret, Jessica & Greg

Move to Amend National Team