In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the US Supreme Court this week overturned a California regulation allowing union organizers to enter workplaces to recruit agricultural workers...on the grounds it violates the employing company's Fifth Amendment’s “takings” clause without just compensation. 

The ruling marks the latest blow in a devastating campaign to roll back hard-won victories for the US labor movement in favor of businesses.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 23, 2021

Contact: Greg Coleridge, [email protected], (216) 255-2184

Move to Amend Condemns Supreme Court’s Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid Decision

Court Overturns Long Standing Farmworkers’ Victory to Expand Corporate Constitutional Rights Doctrine

In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the US Supreme Court yesterday overturned a California regulation allowing union organizers to enter workplaces to recruit agricultural workers on the grounds it violates the Fifth Amendment’s “takings” clause without just compensation. 

The ruling marks the latest blow in a devastating campaign to roll back hard-won victories for the US labor movement in favor of businesses. The regulation has been in place since the 1970s after the United Farm Workers union successfully argued that the only practical way to give farmworkers a realistic chance to consider union membership was to allow organizers to enter workplaces, one the major achievements of the farmworkers’ movement led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

“For-profit corporations have always been favored over non-profit unions under the Court’s illegitimate doctrine of corporate constitutional rights. Now the Roberts’ Court is flaunting its favoritism with reckless abandon,” stated Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Director of Move to Amend. “It is bad enough that corporations can hijack Fifth Amendment rights against takings to overturn or demand compensation for lost profits from community-backed regulations, but now it’s been expanded that right to directly undermine a workers’ First Amendment rights to free speech and free association. We reject the Court’s disturbing opinion and call on Congress to amend the U.S.Constitution by passing H.J.R. 48, the We the People Amendment, to make clear that constitutional rights belong to human beings, not artificial corporations.”

Move to Amend is a growing national grassroots coalition of nearly 475,000 individuals and hundreds of organizations working to pass a constitutional amendment to state that Constitutional rights belong to human beings only, not to corporations and other artificial entities, and that campaign spending is not a form of protected speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated. The group formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC ruling on January 21, 2010. Their We The People Amendment was first introduced in the US House of Representatives on April 29, 2015. 

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Move to Amend representatives are available for interviews with the press about the Cedar Rapids Nursery v. Hassid case. To arrange an interview, please contact [email protected] or call 216-255-2184.

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Many around the world are celebrating what some consider a watershed moment with regard to the environment and climate change --- indeed there are things worth celebrating!

In case you haven't noticed, the corporate take-over of #PrideMonth has begun. 

As the general support for LGBTQ+ rights grows, so does the corporate incentive for brands and companies to position themselves in sync with that growing sentiment. 

The amount of democracy we have in this country is in deep trouble when behemoth business corporations are appealed to by the public to preserve one of its key provisions -- voting rights. 

You've probably heard, our Spring Fundraising Drive has been extended to May 31st -- A long-time donor has offered an additional $5,000 match if we can raise the funds by the end of the month... And we are almost there!

Tomorrow is the deadline for filing 2020 taxes in the United States.

And it's a great day to remember that individual taxpayers will be footing about 50% of the annual federal income, while corporations will only be contributing about 7% (despite so many making unprecedented profits during a year that was financially devastating to so many us). Help us grow the movement to topple corporate rule at its root by sharing the Move to Amend petition with your friends, family and social media today!

For decades, the U.S. government has been blatantly violating our Fourth Amendment rights by engaging in warrantless mass surveillance of our activities -- aided by corporations who have created an entire industry of mining and selling that data to them!

Oh, my… oh, my… April was packed with Corporate Rule News -- check out our monthly Live Report to hear all the most relevant Corporate Rule News we've been tracking!

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The #WeThePeopleAmendment is more important than ever to workers and the labor movement. Share the Move to Amend petition with your fellow workers today so we can grow the movement to end corporate constitutional rights once and for all!

Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey introduced into the 117th Congress a visionary piece of legislation known as the Green New Deal.

The GND is a bold and comprehensive plan to transform our current economy -- based on fossil fuel extraction and exploitation -- into an economy of dignified jobs for all and clean energy!

We're launching #WeThePeopleWednesday!

Calling your Representative every 28th of the month to support the 28th Amendment to #EndCorporateRule is good -- but calling EVERY WEDNESDAY is better!

There's no easy way to say it -- this is a dark time for our already-hobbling labor movement.

Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid case -- in which two agricultural corporations are challenging a California regulation that allows labor unions to talk to workers on the property (during very limited, non-work hours). Their goal is total defiance to any state law affirming any union organizing rights on corporate property.

March is almost gone, but the madness doesn’t end with it — nor does COVID 

https://youtu.be/5zEWoXmYKHg 

When Virginia L. Minor tried to register to vote in Missouri in 1872, the registrar (Reese Happersett) refused to allow it. Minor sued, on the grounds that the 14th Amendment made women citizens of the nation -- and therefore she should be able to vote.

This week marks the 149th anniversary of Minor v. Happersett -- wherein the Supreme Court ruled that a right to vote was NOT inherent to citizenship, and that the laws regarding who could and could not vote should be left to the states.

Great news! We now have 42 co-sponsors formally committed for the reintroduction of the #WeThePeopleAmendment as House Joint Resolution 48, with more expected to sign on by the end of this week!

Did you know that the Supreme Court deemed corporations as people with Constitutional rights fifty years before women achieved the right to vote? That fact gives a whole new meaning to this sentence: The US Constitution is a property rights document.

Today, March 8, is International Women's Day -- an observance established in 1911 with deep roots in the Women's Suffrage Movement. It is an expression of how hard women all over the world have had to fight to secure the same legal status, rights, and opportunities as men. It's also a reminder of the immense work is left to be done to elevate human rights over corporate privilege. Help us grow the movement to continue that work by sharing the Motion to Amend petition on your social media, or a group text/email to your friends and family!