The "corporations are not people" train makes another stop in Vermont this week.
Last Tuesday, on Town Meeting Day, 60 Vermont towns passed resolutions calling on Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to repeal Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that spawned super PACs and gave corporations the same First Amendment rights as flesh-and-blood humans.
Vermonters pushed for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United during this week’s Super Tuesday vote.
The 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allows corporations to spend unlimited amount of money to influence elections.
Dozens of towns and cities took on this issue of money in politics. They passed initiatives and resolutions on town meeting agendas that called on the Vermont delegation in Congress to support an amendment making clear that corporations are not people under the Constitution.
America is engulfed in a new kind of warfare these days against a threat from within that is holding our nation hostage and destroying all we hold dear, especially our democracy and a middle class way of life we may never see again. The new weapons of mass destruction being used against us are vast, unlimited and unidentified amounts of money poured into super PACs by special interests and corporations in order to buy off members of Congress, seize the reins in Washington and take over our country.
Tomorrow, Thursday February 16, presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be the special guest at the Cuyahoga County Republican Party’s Twentieth Annual Lincoln Day Celebration.
As the big spenders are rolling in for the 5 p.m. V.I.P. reception that precedes the 6-8 p.m. dinner at Landerhaven, they’ll be greeted outside by “corporate vice presidential candidates” making their pitch to join Romney’s ticket.
Bringing corporations down to controllable size is a gargantuan task, but an absolute necessity if there is to be any hope for democracy. “Corporations have worked the courts mercilessly since 1819 to take a wide variety of constitutional rights that were designed to cover only people.” In one 30-year period, “African Americans lost their legal personhood, while corporations acquired theirs.” This historical crime must be reversed.
PORTLAND — The Portland City Council has approved a resolution that calls on members of Maine’s congressional delegation to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing corporate personhood.
After listening to more than an hour of testimony tonight about the undue influence corporate donations can play in politics and elections, the council voted 6-2 to adopt the resolution.
There are many schemes now for undoing the doctrines under which corporations claim constitutional rights and bribery is deemed constitutionally protected "speech." Every single one of these schemes depends on a massive movement of public pressure all across the homeland formerly known as the United States of America. With such a movement, few of the schemes can fail. Without it, we're just building castles in the air. Nonetheless, the best scheme can best facilitate the organizing of the movement.
The Pueblo County commissioners on Tuesday gave unanimous support to a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution, specifically to overturn the controversial 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that set aside all federal limits on corporate spending in elections.
The commissioners took the step at the request of a local group, Pueblo Move to Amend, which is trying to organize local support for a national amendment. A dozen or so supporters were on hand at the commissioners' meeting to applaud their vote.
Duluth made history last week when it became the first city in the state to pass a resolution in support of a constitutional amendment that would essentially overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision, namely Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission.
