This amendment affirms that constitutional rights extend only to human persons. Corporations, partnerships, and other organizational entities are not human persons and, therefore, are not entitled to constitutional protections.
This is current proposed language for a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, per the website Ultimate Civics. Ultimate Civics is one of a number of organizations which came together in a coalition, the Campaign to Legalize Democracy, which has as its goal to amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood.
Move to Amend is a project of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy. Its Motion to Amend reads:
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, 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.
- Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
- Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments.
Learn more about the fiction of corporate personhood & the movement to restore democracy in the United States and Sign the Motion to Amend.
I first learned of the Citizens United case, Ultimate Civics, and the Campaign to Legalize Democracy through a guest post by Rikki Ott at Progressive Alaska on December 29. In my last post, I mentioned the Exxon Valdez oil spill: Rikki Ott is a former commercial “fisherma’am” who experienced the effects of the spill firsthand. The team at Ultimate Civics observes,
Like millions of Americans, our personal stories are rooted in community struggles and individual experiences with a corporate-driven political system fueled by financial donations and propaganda.
Yep. Time for the millions of us to take our democracy back again.
Are corporations really persons?
Do corporations think?
Do corporations grieve when a loved one dies as a result of a lack of adequate health care?
If a corporation ever committed an unspeakable crime against the American people, could IT be sent to federal prison? (Note the operative word here: “It”)
Has a corporation ever given its life for its country?
Has a corporation ever been killed in an accident as the result of a design flaw in the automobile it was driving?
Has a corporation ever written a novel that inspired millions?
Has a corporation ever risked its life by climbing a ladder to save a child from a burning house?
Has a corporation ever won an Oscar? Or an Emmy? Or the Nobel Peace Prize? Or the Pulitzer Prize in Biography?
Has a corporation ever been shot and killed by someone who was using an illegal and unregistered gun?
Has a corporation ever paused to reflect upon the simple beauty of an autumn sunset or a brilliant winter moon rising on the horizon?
If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a noise if there are no corporations there to hear it?
Should corporations kiss on the first date?
Our lives – yours and mine – have more worth than any corporation. To say that the Supreme Court made a awful decision on Thursday is an understatement. Not only is it an obscene ruling – it’s an insult to our humanity.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Great post, Tom. I was trying to wrap my mind around the idea that corporations are now considered to be individuals worthy of free speech and the right to vote. I was also trying to imagine why any corporation should ever need the right to influence elections and the only reason I come up with is pure greed. My major concern is what about those U.S. corporations who also have great interests in foreign countries. Now they will have influence over who is running our country. How in the hell did these idiots, that’s the only word I can think of to describe the SCJ’s who voted in favor of this ruling, think that this could possibly be beneficial to our country? For the very same reasons you put in your post, Tom, they are NOT entitled to freedom of speech and the right to vote by their influx of obscene spending in national and state campaigns.
How do you extract a corporation’s DNA? If a corporation ruins a person’s life and no one is responsible, is that person’s life ruined, anyway? Aside from f…ing us all over, do corporations have sex? (I have more, but I didn’t bring them to the library today.) I think these guys have been slinking into the great power they have over us while we have gone blithely along “consuming” every new gadget and “improved”product the advertisers throw at us. We signed away our rights as citizens when we passively accepted the designation, “consumer.” I’m not sure we don’t deserve what we are getting.