Retrieved on 04 March 2011
From:
www.change.org
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Targeting: The President of the United States,
The U.S. Senate, The U.S. House of Representatives,
The President of the United States, The U.S. Senate, The U.S. House of Representatives,
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-08), Sen. Al Franken (MN), Rep. Barney Frank (MA-04),
Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY-09), Rep. John Boehner (OH-08), Rep. Eric Cantor (VA-07),
Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY), Rep. Mike Pence (IN-06), Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21),
Rep. Hal Rogers (KY-05), Rep. Ron Paul (TX-14), Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-49),
Rep. Spencer Bachus (AL-06), Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT), and Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA)
Started by: Jenni Siri
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations
which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid
defiance to the laws of our country." - Thomas Jefferson
Record spending in the 2010 election -- including hundreds of millions of
corporate dollars -- has shown us clearly what’s wrong with the idea that
corporations have a right to spend limitless money on elections, as if they
were people. When corporations take over our democracy, people lose.
In January 2010, a closely divided Supreme Court opened the floodgates,
ruling that corporations have a Constitutional “free speech” right to spend
money on elections. The court trampled on decades of settled law, including
the new McCain-Feingold law enacted just a few years ago by members of
Congress from both parties.
Corporations (and the Supreme Court) are out of control. It’s time to take
back our democracy.
Text is from Free Speech For People
http://freespeechforpeople.org/
and Move To Amend
http://movetoamend.org/motion-amend
In Addition to This Petition ... Also sign the Petitions at:
Free Speech For People
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7003/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4677
and
Move To Amend
http://movetoamend.org/motion-amend
and
PublicCitizen
http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190&track=DGRfp
In addition, this issue goes beyond just corporate takeover of the American electoral
process and all the way back to the judicial bastardization of the 14th Amendment
(for freed slaves) to include the ridiculous notion of "corporate personhood." Thus,
since the 14th Amendment rulings have allowed corporations to overtake this country's
government where the Church has been Constitutionally kept out, we are forced to
call for a 28TH AMENDMENT FOR THE SEPARATION OF CORPORATION AND STATE.
Study Results
January 20, 2011 - On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s
controversial ruling inCitizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a new public
opinion survey finds that seventy-nine percent of Americans sharply disapprove of
the decision and support a Constitutional amendment to reverse the Court’s ruling.
The study, conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of Free Speech for
People, confirmed previous polls that found wide-ranging and strong disapproval
for the decision but is the most comprehensive to date to measure public support
for enacting a Constitutional amendment. In the 111th Congress, Members, including
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD4) intro-
duced amendment bills seeking to overturn the Citizens United decision. (this bill
must now be reintroduced into the 112th Congress)
“This study demonstrates that across a broad political spectrum, the American
people oppose the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC,” said John Bonifaz,
co-founder and director of Free Speech for People. “They are ready for a
Constitutional amendment campaign that will restore our democracy and return
corporations to their place as economic rather than political entities.”
The survey found support for a Constitutional amendment “to make clear that
corporations do not have the same rights as people” crosses all party lines.
Large majorities of Democrats (87%), independents (82%), and Republicans
(68%) support passage of the amendment. “Each of the arguments in favor
of passing a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United
decision,” Hart Research reports, “is more convincing than any of the
arguments against it, and the least effective argument against passage
is that it will take too long and is not a good use of Congress’s time.”
“In many different ways,” Hart Research concludes, “the American public
makes clear its disapproval of the ruling in the Citizens United case and
signals its broad support for a Constitutional amendment to overturn this
decision and make clear that corporations do not have the same rights
as people. There is a clear desire to readjust the level of influence that
corporations have in the nation’s political, legislative, and regulatory systems.”
A full report of the survey findings can be found here.
http://freespeechforpeople.org/sites/default/files/me10129b_public.pdf
The above text comes from Free Speech For People.
http://freespeechforpeople.org/node/185
Please see the letter below.
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WE THE PEOPLE Support a 28th Constitutional Amendment for
The Separation of Corporation and State
Greetings,
To correct the damage the Supreme Court has done to the First and Fourteenth Amendments,
we demand a Constitutional amendment which unilaterally restores 'personhood' to people, and
people alone."
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission, a new public opinion survey finds that seventy-nine
percent of Americans sharply disapprove of the decision and support a Constitutional amend-
ment to reverse the Court’s ruling. The study, conducted by Hart Research Associates on
behalf of Free Speech for People, confirmed previous polls that found wide-ranging and
strong disapproval for the decision but is the most comprehensive to date to measure public
support for enacting a Constitutional amendment.
“This study demonstrates that across a broad political spectrum, the American people oppose
the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC,” said John Bonifaz, co-founder and director of
Free Speech for People. “They are ready for a Constitutional amendment campaign that will
restore our democracy and return corporations to their place as economic rather than poli-
tical entities.”
The survey found support for a Constitutional amendment “to make clear that corporations
do not have the same rights as people” crosses all party lines. Large majorities of Demo-
crats (87%), independents (82%), and Republicans (68%) support passage of the amendment.
“Each of the arguments in favor of passing a Constitutional amendment to overturn the
Citizens United decision,” Hart Research reports, “is more convincing than any of the
arguments against it, and the least effective argument against passage is that it will take
too long and is not a good use of Congress’s time.”
“In many different ways,” Hart Research concludes, “the American public makes clear its
disapproval of the ruling in the Citizens United case and signals its broad support
for a Constitutional amendment to overturn this decision and make clear that
corporations do not have the same rights as people. There is a clear desire to
readjust the level of influence that corporations have in the nation’s political,
legislative, and regulatory systems.”
Below is our resolution in support of a Constitutional Amendment:
WHEREAS the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to
protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations;
WHEREAS, for the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has
transformed the First Amendment into a powerful tool for corporations seeking to
evade and invalidate democratically-enacted reforms;
WHEREAS, this corporate takeover of the First Amendment has reached its extreme
conclusion in the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Citizens United v. FEC;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC over-
turned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from spending their general
treasury funds in our elections;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC will
now unleash a torrent of corporate money in our political process unmatched by any
campaign expenditure totals in United States history;
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC pre-
sents a serious and direct threat to our democracy;
WHEREAS, the people of the United States have previously used the Constitutional
amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United
States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and self-government;
NOW HEREBY BE IT RESOLVED THAT WE THE UNDERSIGNED VOTERS OF
THE UNITED STATES CALL UPON THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PASS
AND SEND TO THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION A CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND-
MENT TO RESTORE THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND FAIR ELECTIONS TO THE
PEOPLE.
In addition, this issue goes beyond just corporate takeover of the American electoral
process and all the way back to the judicial bastardization of the 14th Amendment
(for freed slaves) to include the ridiculous notion of "corporate personhood."
Thus, since the 14th Amendment rulings have allowed corporations to overtake this
country's government where the Church has been Constitutionally kept out, we are
forced to call for a
28TH AMENDMENT FOR THE SEPARATION OF CORPORATION AND STATE.
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.
- to guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote
and participation count.
- to protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against
illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
- to abolish corporate lobbyists and their court-sponsored chokehold on
the Senate and House of Representatives.
- to clarify through due process that corporations are not considered
a person, artificial or otherwise - to emphatically reverse the 1886
Supreme Court ruling in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern
Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394, in which corporations were recognized
as persons for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.
- to prohibit corporate support, financial or otherwise, in the electoral and
political processes of the United States of America.
- to lawfully prohibit "cross-contamination" between corporate boardmembers
and those who are employed to hold political office.
WE THE PEOPLE Support a 28th Constitutional Amendment for
The Separation of Corporation and State.
[Your name]
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Thos. Jefferson wiki:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he
owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government
reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the
whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of
separation between church and State.
Letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT. (1 January 1802) This statement is the origin
of the often used phrase "separation of Church and State".
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555 PEOPLE--By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them...
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits,
WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes,
WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.
The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices
equates to 555 (sic- 545) human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally,
and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created
by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound
currency to a federally chartered, but PRIVATE, central bank.
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