According to the White House, Executive Order 14087 has been signed — rolling back critical medication price decreases for seniors that were negotiated just one year ago. This executive action is a blatant gift to Big Pharma, once again proving that corporate power holds more sway over our government than the voices of the people.

You can see for yourself — the White House News page lists all executive orders numerically. Scroll to #14087 to see the order that rescinds lower drug prices for Medicare recipients. Please share this information with anyone you know who could be affected.

White House Executive Orders List- 14087

How did this happen? Follow the money.

Big Pharma and other giant corporations have never held more political power than they do today. This is thanks to the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which further codified the insane notion that a corporation is a person and money equals speech.

This allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and policy, drowning out the voices of everyday people. This executive order is just the latest example of corporate rule in action.

Every day, corporate influence tightens its grip—drowning out the voices of everyday people and shaping policies that put profits over our communities, our environment, and our future. Billionaires and corporate lobbyists flood elections with dark money, drowning out the voices of everyday Americans. Big Pharma blocks lower prescription drug prices while raking in record profits. Oil and gas giants bankroll politicians to stall climate action while wildfires rage and floods devastate communities. Corporate polluters poison our water—just ask the people of Flint and East Palestine—yet they face little to no accountability.

Together, we can change that! Join us for “Organizing for the We the People Amendment” on March 10.
(RSVP below)

The We the People Amendment (H.J.Res. 54) is the solution. It will put an end to corporate constitutional rights and overturn Citizens United, ensuring that our government is led by people, not corporate interests. This amendment will make it clear: only human beings have constitutional rights, and money is not speech.

This is our moment to take back our power to create a genuine democracy—but we can’t do it alone. Every dollar corporations pour into elections is a dollar spent silencing you. Every day we wait, corporate power grows stronger.

Imagine standing in the Supreme Court chambers 169 years ago today, as Chief Justice Roger Taney delivers the infamous ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. The words hang heavy in the air—words that strip away the very humanity of an entire people. Words that declare, without hesitation, that Black individuals "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Dred and Harriet Scott had dared to dream of freedom, had fought courageously in the courts, and had even tasted victory—only to have it cruelly overturned by the highest court in the land. And yet, their loss was not just personal. It set a chilling precedent: that property rights outweighed human rights, that the expansion of slavery could not be curbed, and that the Constitution itself was never intended to include people of African descent.

We know how this story continued. The abolitionist movement erupted with renewed fury. The Civil War raged. The 13th and 14th Amendments were passed, bringing the legal end of slavery and a promise—however fragile—of citizenship and equal protection under the law.

But what if we told you that the Dred Scott ruling was never formally overturned?

What if we told you that, in 2016, it was still being cited as legal precedent—used in an attempt to deny women their constitutional rights in a Kansas court case? 

Every day, corporate influence tightens its grip—drowning out the voices of everyday people and shaping policies that put profits over our communities, our environment, and our future. Billionaires and corporate lobbyists flood elections with dark money, drowning out the voices of everyday Americans. Big Pharma blocks lower prescription drug prices while raking in record profits. Oil and gas giants bankroll politicians to stall climate action while wildfires rage and floods devastate communities. Corporate polluters poison our water—just ask the people of Flint and East Palestine—yet they face little to no accountability.

Together, we can change that! Join us for “Organizing for the We the People Amendment” on March 10.
(RSVP below)

The We the People Amendment (H.J.Res. 54) is the solution. It will put an end to corporate constitutional rights and overturn Citizens United, ensuring that our government is led by people, not corporate interests. This amendment will make it clear: only human beings have constitutional rights, and money is not speech.

The #WeThePeopleAmendment was introduced in Congress last week.

This amendment makes clear that only human beings have Constitutional rights (not corporations) and that money is not speech so that campaign spending can be regulated, and big money can be eliminated from the political process.

This critical amendment is necessary to move forward on just about every other issue you care about, from climate change to election integrity to police brutality and human rights!

Our goal is to get at least 100 co-sponsors on the #WeThePeopleAmendment -- so we need at least 3-5 constituents in each district to hold a successful lobby meeting... sign up below!

The meetings will all be virtual and online and will take about 20-30 mins. Move to Amend organizers will help you prepare for the meeting and work with you to ensure it is a success!

What is needed to participate:

• High speed internet and computer with video capability (if this is a challenge for you, let us know and we will see if we can make it work)
• A passion for passing the #WeThePeopleAmendment to end corporate rule and get big money out of politics
• 1-2 hours to prepare your statement during the meeting and join a prep call with Move to Amend organizers and other volunteers 
• 20-30 minutes during a weekday (between 9am-5pm ET) for the meeting with your Representative and/or a member of their staff (to be scheduled by their office)

Can we count you in to join the meeting?

***Click on each task for related templates and instructions.

STEP 1 -- SIGN UP FIRST!

• Sign up to organize or participate in a lobby meeting on our website.

STEP 2 -- Recruit 3-5 Constituents to Commit to Join a Meeting with the Representative

• Send an email blast to the Move to Amend list asking people to sign up for the meeting
• Recruit your friends and neighbors through social media, email or text messaging
• Phonebank or text bank the Move to Amend list to ask people to commit to joining the meeting

STEP 3 -- Schedule the Meeting

• Contact your Representative's office and ask for a Zoom meeting

STEP 4 -- Prepare for the Meeting

• Watch the Organizing for the 119th Congress to Amen Training recording!
• Post the meeting date and time to the Move to Amend website to help promote
• Review background information about the #WeThePeopleAmendment
• Line up a Move to Amend national organizer to join you for the meeting
• Hold a prep call to review meeting roles and make sure you are each clear on what you'll say and how to make sure to get to the ask
• Send a blast to constituents on the Move to Amend list a few days in advance to ensure the office gets calls to put the #WeThePeopleAmendment on their radar before your meeting

STEP 5 -- Hold the Meeting

• Follow an agenda because you'll only have 20-30 minutes
• Take good notes, keep track of any questions you get that you can't answer on the spot and commit to following up with the answer(s)
• Enter the details and notes to the Move to Amend national database
• Make a clear ask: Will you co-sponsor the #WeThePeopleAmendment?

STEP 6 -- Follow up!

• Send a thank-you email with any info requests to the staffer(s) and mail a thank you note to the Representative
• Send email blasts to constituents on the Move to Amend list asking them to call each week to keep the pressure up
• In 2 weeks send an email and/or call the office and ask for a response. Be persistent! Keep trying every 2-3 days until you get a response

STEP 7 -- Celebrate or Escalate!

• Often this is all it takes, especially for Representatives who agree with our goals. But if you don't have a commitment yet it is time to escalate your tactics. We will work with you to determine how to escalate appropriately, from stepping up the phone calls, to organizing a letter-writing campaign, to car parades around their office, to delivering Move to Amend petitions to their home, and more!

For the love of democracy, for the love of community, for the love of our shared future—we must act.

Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced the We the People Amendment (HJR54) into the 119th Congress on Wednesday with 28 original cosponsors, a bold step toward ending corporate constitutional rights i.e. corporate personhood and the corrupt notion that money in elections equals free speech. This amendment is a call to reclaim democracy, ensuring that our government serves the people—not corporations and wealthy elites.

At its core, this is about agapē—a deep, unconditional love for humanity. A love that compels us to protect one another, to ensure our government prioritizes public health, safety, and welfare of WE the people over corporate profits and personal gain. As corruption infiltrates our institutions, trust erodes, communities suffer, and the most vulnerable among us—bear the brunt.

We are at a crossroads. Will we continue to allow the insane notion that a corporation is a person entitled to constitutional rights and its money is a form of free speech that has rolled out the welcome mat for leaders to prioritize corporate- and self-interest and vengeance over the common good, leaving us vulnerable to divisive policies, economic instability, environmental collapse, and other preventable crises? Or will we demand real democracy that is genuinely accountable to the people, not corporate interests? The future is ours to shape, but only if we take action now.

Recent headlines have been grappling with the startling public reaction to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Articles like Economic Times’ ““Little sympathy: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's death becomes a meme and source of ridicule on social media; here's the reason why”” and USA Today’s “The UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed and many had little sympathy. Why?”?” reflect a grim reality: a widespread disillusionment with the healthcare-for-profit system and its devastating impact on everyday lives.

The alleged shooter, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione's, , has pled not guilty to multiple federal charges, including murder. Legal experts are speculating that the case could face “the highest risk” of jury nullification, as public sentiment appears to sympathize more with the accused than the victim. This reaction highlights a critical truth: while the act of violence is indefensible, the misery caused by the for-profit healthcare industry is rooted not in the actions of any one CEO, but in a system of corporate rule that prioritizes profit over people.

The misery so many people suffer at the source of the Healthcare-for-profit Industry is corporate personhood, not from an errant CEO.

The Root of the Problem: Corporate Constitutional Rights

At the heart of this system is the doctrine of corporate personhood, which grants corporations constitutional rights originally intended for human beings. This, combined with the notion of money equaling free speech, has allowed corporations to hijack our political system, undermining free and fair elections, and turning governance into a mechanism for advancing corporate interests. The result? A healthcare system that treats human lives as commodities.

We recently examined the outsized political influence of the healthcare industry in our piece, “Political Influence of the Healthcare Industry.” We laid out why, despite overwhelming public support for a universal healthcare system, corporate interests continue to block progress. 

Massive corporate profits!

We are excited to invite you join the fight against the scariest monster of all - corporate personhood and influence over our democracy. 

Please mark your calendar for Monday, November 18 and join us at one of two scheduled virtual programs to hear more about the many upcoming opportunities to get involved and volunteer with Move to Amend. Both times will cover the same material and provide opportunities to answer questions.

The programs will be at 12pm PT / 3pm ET and 5:30 pm ET / 8:30pm ET

We need YOU to help clean out the skeletons in Congress's closet!

PURPOSE:
Each Move to Amend Affiliate has or will adopt an Outreach Plan as required by the National Team.  In order to maintain focus on the objectives of these plans it is important to prioritize the many requests affiliate members get from other organizations working on important issues.  This policy will ground our responses to those requests in our Outreach Plans and the values we hold as the Move to Amend Coalition.

FIRST STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE OF MOVE TO AMEND:   Engage other social, economic, and environmental justice movement organizations to see passage of the We the People Amendment as a strategic priority by making connections between their missions and corporate rule and by fostering anti-oppression literacy within Move to Amend to effectively build solidarity with organizations working in highly impacted and marginalized communities.
 

CAPACITY:
Given that affiliates have limited capacity, it is important that volunteers are engaged in activities that help meet the First Strategic Objective. Capacity is limited by the number of volunteers and the amount of time volunteers can commit to Move to Amend.
 

EVALUATION FOR ENGAGEMENT:
This policy has been adopted to guide affiliates when other organizations request that the affiliate engage with them in various ways. Level One organizations are the highest priority for local affiliate support and resources. 

With surplus affiliate resources and volunteer capacity, move through Level Two to Level Four.

PRIORITY LEVEL ONE

1. Is this organization working on one of your top three issues in your Solidarity Outreach Plan?
2. Is there more than one organization working on this issue?
3. Is this organization led by women, people of color, young people, or other marginalized communities or groups?
4. Is this a “leading” organization in this issue (ie, getting the most done compared with other organizations)?

PRIORITY LEVEL TWO

1. Has this organization adopted the Move to Amend resolution?
2. Has this organization only signed on as an Endorsing Organization?

PRIORITY LEVEL THREE

1. Is this organization working on issues of corporate power and/or money in politics?
2. Is this organization supporting campaign finance reform legislation locally or statewide (ie, campaign spending limits, public disclosure laws, lobby restrictions, etc)?
3. Does this organization use messaging similar to Move to Amend (ie, “corporations are not people” or “end corporate rule”)?

PRIORITY LEVEL FOUR

1. Are members/volunteers from this organization also Active Volunteers for Move to Amend?  (Example: Jane is on the board of the church she belongs to and they are working on $15/hour minimum wages.)
    

DECIDING HOW TO ENGAGE:
The decision to engage with an organization must be reached by consensus in alignment with Move to Amend’s Core Principles and Values. To engage with a local organization, the core leaders within a local Affiliate must agree. To engage with a statewide organization, each affiliate within a State Network must agree. Any affiliates without a State Network should consult with National before engaging with statewide organizations.
NOTE: Engagement with national organizations by MTA Affiliates must be approved by MTA National.
 

WAYS TO BECOME ENGAGED:
In addition to the activities listed in your Outreach Plan, each affiliate may offer the following actions to...

1. If asked, add their affiliate's name to the work of the organization as a cosponsor, endorser, partner, ally, or other title they prefer.
2. Promote rallies, marches, direct action events, fundraising events and meetings of the organization using their affiliate's resources.
   NOTE: With regards to promoting fundraising events, we are trusting your judgement as affiliate leaders to make this determination on a case by case basis. Given our own struggles with fundraising and some organization's affiliations with political parties, please use caution in any investment of affiliate resources, including your funds, to promote another organization's fundraising events.
3. Request volunteer help on behalf of the organization.
4. Endorse their local or statewide initiatives/legislation, which could include attendance and/or testimony at public hearings (be sure to give National notice when you endorse other legislation). NOTE: Endorsements of national initiatives/legislation by MTA Affiliates must be approved by MTA National.
5. Write talking points, position papers, and other literature that connect the power of corporations to block progress on the organization’s issue.
6. Invite leaders of the organization to speak or present to your affiliate members or public events.
    

EXCEPTIONS:
The following organizations are considered exceptions to the Solidarity Engagement Policy. They include organizational and legislative types we can support freely and ones we should not support for any reason.  

1. PRIORITY LEVEL TWO: Organizations working on initiatives/legislation advancing or protecting Human Rights (Example: Medicare for All, Equal Rights for women/People of Color/LGBTQ+/Immigrants/etc, livable wages, free school/college tuition).  
2. PRIORITY LEVEL TWO: Organizations work on initiatives/legislation advancing or protecting Rights of Nature (Example: Lake Erie Personhood Rights).
3. PRIORITY LEVEL THREE: Organizations working on initiatives/legislation advancing or protecting participatory democracy (Example: universal voting rights, automatic voter registration, ranked choice voting).
4. DO NOT SUPPORT: Organizations opposed to the We the People Amendment or working against it.
5. DO NOT SUPPORT: Organizations working to expand or protect corporate constitutional rights and/or money equals speech.
6. DO NOT SUPPORT: Organizations associated with and/or “willing to work with” known extremists, hate groups or ideologies identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Examples: American Freedom Party, Council for Conservative Citizens, etc).
    

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Here are list of resources for how to engage in solidarity with your community allies.

• Solidarity and Anti-Oppression Practices and Principles
• What is Solidarity Organizing? - best tips and practices for engaging in solidarity with other organizations and communities against corporate rule
• Activists' Guide to Intersectionality and Inclusivity - a deeply informative guide for how to engage in solidarity organizing across intersectional issues and build an inclusive democracy movement 
• Dismantling Oppression Group Continuum - a measurement for how inclusive your group is becoming through its anti-oppression training
• Solicit Organizational Endorsements - a guide with helpful materials for how to reach out and connect with local organizations to support the movement to amend the Constitution

This policy is effective as of July 15, 2019.

You're personally invited to come connect and engage with MTA founding member and organizing powerhouse, Dr. Riki Ott (and other movement leaders) during this month's exciting Eco Net Call. 

Dr. Ott is a marine toxicologist, activist, author and former commercial fisher ma'am.

Ott has long opposed the legal doctrine of corporate constitutional rights and has been advocating for amending the U.S. Constitution to clarify that corporations do not possess human rights. She argues that corporations use personhood to seek extraordinary privileges. She cites, for example, Exxon's attempt to re-enter Prince William Sound—after being banned from the area by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990—by claiming a Fifth Amendment right.

An "epiphany" about corporate personhood came to Ott during the struggle against Exxon, during which she sought to answer the question: "How did corporations get so big that they can manipulate the legal system?'

After the oil Spill she asked herself, "Do I know enough to make a difference. And Do I care enough?" 

As we continue to move further into climate collapse and through other violent impacts of our pay-to-play system of government, it is imperative that we boldly connect the dots of corporate seizure of inalienable constitutional rights that are meant for human beings, to work and stand in allyship with individuals and organizations that have a vision and strategy for a transition to a just future. 

Move to Amend has always focused on getting at the roots of problems, to end corporate personhood and build a vibrant democracy that values people over profits. Since its inception, we have grown into a coalition of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to social, environmental and economic justice and we have achieved that by thinking outside the realm of what we’ve been taught to believe is possible and exploring big questions as well as unsettling truths.

Controlling money creation over generations has made giant (banking) corporations so strong they have succeeded in corrupting the courts into highjack our constitutional rights as if they were living, breathing, jailable human beings.

You well know that corporations now spend all they want on politicians and media, shielded from public accountability.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! That is why we are working to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations (including banks), are persons entitled to constitutional rights as proposed in the We the People Amendment (HJR 54).

Our coalition partners, at Alliance for Just Money have issued a distress call for our predatory system of money, which is structurally incapable of serving our people and planet. 

Corporate controlled media will not raise up the issues and solutions so organizing with people and allied organizations and raising our voices in public spaces is vital to make the direct link between furthering the issues and solutions we all care about and abolishing “corporate personhood”. This is how we are going to build a movement strong enough to address the magnitude of the problem.

We invite you to join us in answering their Mayday for Money for a Just Transition March Call-to-Action in Chicago, May 18!  

It's crucial that we take action in moments like this, Jennie. 

Will you start a $5 monthly donation to help us raise up our visibility to keep the pressure on Congress to end corporate personhood and unlimited money in our elections?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

Just Money for a Just Transition

Move to Amend is joining Alliance for Just Money in Chicago! May 18 -19 2024

Controlling money creation over generations has made giant (banking) corporations so strong they have succeeded in corrupting the courts to highjack our constitutional rights as if they were living, breathing, jailable human beings.

Banks are not people! Money is not speech!

Corporations can now spend all they want on politicians and media, shielded from public accountability. But it doesn’t have to be this way!

Alliance for Just Money has issued the distress call for our dreadful system of money, which is structurally incapable of serving our people and planet. 

Will you join us in answering the Mayday Call to action May 17-19, 2024, in Chicago. 

Earth is warming and its species, oceans, and ecosystems are dying. Our government and people are drowning in debt; wealth inequity is growing exponentially, both locally & globally; wars are multiplying; and we are told that there is simply not enough money to care for people and planet!!

Following the money, leads to banks that decide how new money that they create out of thin air will be used. A bank will create money to buy your town's bonds for workforce housing or other public goods, but only if your town pays high enough fees and interest to compete with banks’ juicier profit centers like weapons, high-end mortgages, and fossil fuels.

That is why Move to Amend is collaborating with Alliance for Just Money to make the connection between corporate constitutional rights and our monetary system. Together we can achieve a just, transparent, democratic, and sustainable money system that is accountable to the people.

Let us know you're coming - RSVP here to stay connected:  https://www.movetoamend.org/mayday4money

Public Action Tool Kit for May 10th in your Community. 

The Call to Action

Thank you for organizing a public action in your community to raise up the "birth of corporate personhood"– a vigil, rally, press conference, picket, or march – at a Congressional office, court building, corporate headquarters or other symbolic location:

• To educate the community on why ending corporate rule is so much more than simply reversing Citizens United and corporate money spent in elections
• To advocate for passage of the We the People Amendment, HJR54
• To organize people and allied organizations to make the direct link between furthering the issues and solutions they care about and abolishing “corporate personhood.”

Click on Tool Kit headings below for templates and details!

• Check-list for local actions (with descriptions of each venue, plus checklists) 
  

• Press Release Template (draft/ example)

• Letter to the Editor (draft/ example)
  

• Publicity Handout (template/ Please make copy of flyer before inserting local information)
  
  
• Flyer (at event)
  
  
• Social Media Toolkit
  
  
• Background information (for personal education) 
  • Corporate Hijacking of the 14th Amendment
  • Talking points Corporate Constitutional Rights
    

To get our We The People amendment passed, we need a Senate Companion Bill to HJR 54.

Who better to ask than our California Senate Candidates.

Forty-eight years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that restrictions on campaign spending were a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

They really said that MONEY, which is PROPERTY, is the same as FREE SPEECH.

Most of us learned about the absurd Supreme Court doctrines of "money = speech" and "corporations are people" in 2010, when the Citizens United ruling came down.

But the Buckley v. Valeo (1976) case that set the "money = speech" precedent was not about corporations -- it was about one individual's belief that campaign finance laws were a violation of his first amendment rights to express himself.

 april2013takeactionwebinar.pdf

Category: 

• Outreach & Promotion 
• Press & Media 
• Webinars