We the People, Not We the Corporations

 

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.

We Move to Amend.

". . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."

             ~Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010

 

Announcements

Intern with Move to Amend - Applications Due Oct 31

October 31, 2014

Move to Amend is the the national campaign to Abolish Corporate Personhood and Defend Democracy. We are mobilizing a movement to amend the US Constitution to establish that corporations are not people and that financial contributions to political campaigns are not free speech.

We are seeking bright, energetic folks to join our team as interns this spring and fall. Interns can either work out of the office of Democracy Unlimited in Eureka, CA - one of our Move to Amend founding organizations, or telecommute from anywhere in the United States.

Pulling the Plug on Corporate Personhood

October 21, 2014

Citizens United prompted cries for a constitutional amendment. But how to amend?

American democracy is reaching a breaking point, from failed winner-take-all voting rules to blatant attempts to suppress voter turnout. The rising torrent of campaign spending by the 1% has triggered particular outrage.

Activists leapt into action after the Supreme Court’s January 2010 Citizens United decision, which not only overturned a century of precedent that barred corporate money in American elections, but also enshrined corporations as non-human entities that have the same constitutional rights as people.

'Then They Fight You': Plutocrats on the Defensive Against Social Justice Movements

October 20, 2014

What is it like to be a billionaire in the United States? According to billionaire venture capitalist Tom Perkins, wealth is a burden made "unbearable" by people of lesser incomes when they demand equality. That was the narrative published by the corporate news machine at the Wall Street Journal.

Taking time away from maintaining the world's largest luxury yacht, Perkins compared progressive movements seeking social and economic justice to the horrific persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany. Sensible people were quick to denounce such ludicrous comparisons with the Holocaust. But Perkins' fellow oligarchs continue endorsing the narrative of a "hard-working" class of wealthy people "under siege" by a "lazy" class of poor people. According to billionaires like Sam Zell and Wilbur Ross, they are being targeted by poor people "jealous" of what they have and incapable of working as hard as they do.

Supreme Authority: The Growing Power of the US Supreme Court and Democratic Alternatives

October 17, 2014

The constitutional doctrines claiming “corporations are persons” and “money equals speech” and their effects are not the only fundamental threats to what remains of our democracy.1 An additional and increasing assault is the U.S. Supreme Court itself – not simply its decisions and their impact, but also its very structure.

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