City of Cleveland Heights
Council Office
40 Severance Circle
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
June 10, 2025
The Honorable Bernie Moreno
SR-284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Jon Husted
SR-304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Shontel Brown
2455 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rob McColley
1 Capitol Square, Second Floor 201
Columbus, OH 43215
The Honorable Matt Huffman
77 South high Street 14th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
CC:
Mayor Kahlil Seren, City of Cleveland Heights
Director of Law William R. Hanna, City of Cleveland Heights
Dear Senators Moreno and Husted, Representative Brown, President McColley, and Speaker Huffman:
On behalf of the Cleveland Heights City Council, I am writing to share a summary of the 12th Annual “Democracy Day” Public Hearing, held on June 5, 2025, in Council Chambers.
This public hearing is required by a 2013 citizen-initiated ordinance titled “Calling on Congress to Amend the U.S. Constitution to Establish That Corporations Are Not People and Money Is Not Speech.” Passed by 77% of Cleveland Heights voters, the ordinance mandates an annual public hearing to examine “the political influence by corporations and big money in connection with the most recent election.” It also requires the City Council to notify elected officials of the hearing and to reaffirm the will of the voters, who in November 2013 called for a constitutional amendment declaring:
At the June 5 hearing, eight individuals provided oral testimony, and one submitted written remarks. Topics included:
https://www.dispatch.com/picture-gallery/news/2025/05/24/nato-protest-rally-downtown-dayton-ohio/83840769007
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May 24, 2025
By Staff Report
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is in Dayton for its spring session, which is causing a lot of changes downtown. Here are things to know about Saturday.
Read moreSam Allard | May 12, 2025
https://www.axios.com/local/cleveland/2025/05/12/democracy-day-city-hall-money-politics
A community-led "Democracy Day" hearing arrives at Cleveland City Hall Monday as part of the national movement to get corporate money out of politics.
The big picture: Cleveland is among more than 20 Ohio municipalities that have passed resolutions since 2012 pushing Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to declare that money is not speech.
Updated: Mar. 11, 2025, 11:26 a.m. | Published: Mar. 11, 2025, 9:34 a.m.
https://www.cleveland.com/community/2025/03/a-more-than-capacity-crowd-attends-chagrin-falls-move-to-amend-day.html
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- In place of the usual Monday night Village Council meeting March 10, the village hosted “Move to Amend Day.”
Chagrin Falls hosts “Move to Amend Day” once every two years so that residents can speak their minds concerning government topics.
Specifically, the event looks at the impact on the village by political influence of corporate entities -- including unions and political action committees -- in regard to the most recent state and federal elections.
Miami Valley Today
March 1, 2025
By Deb Hogshead
Guest columnist
January 21 was the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, a ruling that opened the floodgates of big money into political campaigns. At the Troy City Council meeting that night, I made a statement explaining why we need to close those floodgates and end the misguided doctrine that a corporation is a person with the same inherent, inalienable constitutional rights as you and me.
Since then, we’ve seen two very significant things happen.
First, we’ve seen how $288 million can buy a seat in the White House and a platform to speak from the Oval Office.
Second, we’ve seen the We the People Amendment get re-introduced in Congress as House Joint Resolution 54. The proposed amendment requires the regulation of campaign spending and makes clear that constitutional rights belong to natural persons only.
Read moreDayton Daily News | January 21, 2025
January 21 marks 15 years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which equated corporate political spending with free speech and reinforced the notion of “corporate personhood”. This ruling has had profound impacts, granting corporations outsized influence over our political landscape. Recent events underscore the dangers of equating corporate rights with individual rights, particularly when such actions undermine public welfare.
News articles about ByteDance, being forced to sell TikTok over national security issues underscores these risks. But TikTok isn’t the only foreign owned company in the US. According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, as of January 2023, 252 Chinese companies were listed on the top three U.S. stock exchanges. This figure excludes smaller private businesses and companies with over 50% foreign-owned stockholders.
Read more
Kent voters in 2015 approved a ballot initiative for City Council to schedule Democracy Day every election year. Nearly 30 cities in Ohio also have approved resolutions calling for “We the People” constitution amendments and public hearings, including Akron, Canton and Cleveland. Democracy Day is part of the national Move to Amend movement to approve the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
Any person wishing to be heard on the subject matter of the political influence resulting from campaign contributions by corporate entities should plan to give a 3- to 5-minute talk and submit a copy of the talk to the Clerk of Council at the public hearing. People also can attend and listen to the speakers.
For details on the amendment, go to movetoamend.org.
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Move to Amend is a coalition of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to social and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and building a vibrant democracy that is genuinely accountable to the people, not corporate interests. We call for an amendment to the US Constitution to unequivocally state that inalienable rights belong to human beings only, and that money is not a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated in political campaigns. Move to Amend © Move to Amend
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