Kansas City takes on Citizens United

[LongTomH]

KC Move to Amend is the Kansas City chapter of Move to Amend. Over the last few weeks we've been circulating petitions in Kansas City, Mo with the following language:

We, the undersigned residents of Kansas City, Missouri, urge the Kansas City, Missouri City Council to pass the following resolution:

RESOLVED, the People of Kansas City, Missouri, stand with communities across the country to defend democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate power by amending the United States Constitution to establish that:

1. Only human beings, not corporations, are endowed with constitutional rights, and
   
2. Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech."

Tomorrow, June 13, Kansas City Move to Amend (KCMTA) members will deliver copies of our petition, with over 3,000 signatures, to the KCMO City Council. We expect them to vote on the resolution Thursday, June 14. The actual resolution to be voted on by the KCMO City Council incorporates the above language from our petition, plus a lot of 'WHEREAS's to make it sound more official. Full text of the resolution HERE.

Here are some excerpts from the press release sent out by KC Move to Amend:

City Council of Kansas City to Vote on Resolution To Amend the US Constitution

Amendment Needed to Overturn U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United Ruling

Kansas City MO Citizens will hold a public Press Conference and hope to celebrate the City Council’s approval of a resolution designed to curb corporate power in elections which is scheduled for a vote on June 14, 2012.

The resolution is one of more than 200 that have been passed since the Citizens United ruling in 2010, one of more than 100 passed since March. The effort is being organized by the Kansas City affiliate of Move To Amend—a national coalition of organizations formed in response to the Citizens United ruling.

“I am pleased to join elected officials across the country in sponsoring a resolution to support the efforts of Move to Amend to reverse the impact of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The resolutions are sponsored by Republican, Democratic, and Non-partisan elected officials who are concerned about the detrimental impact of allowing unlimited political contributions by corporations, unions, and other unidentified interest groups. Regulating political contributions and spending does not limit free speech but provides a transparent process that is critical to protecting the integrity of campaigns,” says sponsoring Councilwoman, Jan Marcason. Since the Citizens United ruling, record amounts of money have been spent in races throughout the country.

Kansas City is part of a growing movement in which city councils, from Los Angeles and New York, to Duluth, Minn., and South Miami, Fla., are calling for a constitutional amendment to curb corporate influence over elections. In addition, voters have approved similar ballot initiatives in cities such as Missoula, Mont., West Allis, Wis., and Boulder, Colo. State legislatures in Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Mexico have called for an amendment as well, and similar resolutions have been introduced in 25 states, including Kansas.

Read the rest of the press release on Tony's Kansas City blog.

KC Move to Amend is so confident of passage of the resolution that we're planning a celebration and press conference following the vote. For those in the Kansas City Metro area, come join us at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 4501 Walnut Street at 7:00PM Thursday, June14. There will be refreshments and live music by a local musician. Someone has already arranged for videotaping of the event for a YouTube video (I promise to post it here!).

We'll also be discussing where to go next. The current resolution is just for Kansas City, MO. There are other communities in the Kansas City Metro area on both sides of the Kansas / Missouri state line.

Someone is certainly going to ask: "What good does it do to have a resolution supporting a constitutional amendment from a city council? Certainly nice; but, it doesn't get the job done (of amending the Constitution)." That's certainly true; all we're asking for right now is a show of support from KC and the 200 other communities around the nation. The process of amending the Constitution has just started. It's going to be a long, long, uphill battle and we realize that.

For more information on Move to Amend, it's drive to amend the constitution and the issues involved, go to the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Move to Amend website; also check out their links. Find out if there's a Move to Amend chapter near you; if not, start one.

[Nye Bevan]

1. "Corporations are not endowed with Constitutional rights".

So the offices of DemocraticUndergound LLC could be searched by the police for no reason, and all of its assets could be confiscated without compensation.

Bad amendment.

[EOTE]

2. Those offices are owned by people, right?

And those people are still protected by the 4th amendment, right?

[Indydem]

3. Thus the SCOTUS argument

Corporations are owned by people, and thus they are protected under the 1st amendment.

Their argument, as I understand it, is that since corporations are made up of shareholders (people) they get the same rights as people.

[Bandit]

4. How much are you as an individual allowed to contribute to a campaign?

I would venture it is a limit that Corporations do not have to follow..

[Nye Bevan]

6. Corporations are prohibited from contributing to candidate campaigns or political parties

in Federal elections. Citizens United did not address or modify this law.

For example, individuals can contribute up to $2500 to a Presidential candidate. Corporations can contribute zero. I hope this answers your question.

[LongTomH]

7. The Move to Amend website has a discussion of "Corporate Personhood" and it's history!

It's at the top of their Frequently Asked Questions page:

There are two conceptions of "corporate personhood". The first simply bestows upon corporations the ability to engage in many legal actions (e.g. enter into contracts, sue, be sued, etc). This is widely accepted and we do not object to this.

However, "corporate personhood" also commonly refers to the Supreme Court-created precedent of corporations enjoying constitutional rights that were intended solely for human beings. We believe this form of "corporate personhood" corrupts our Constitution and must be corrected by amending the Constitution. Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution ever mention corporations. But thanks to decades of rulings by Justices who molded the law to favor elite interests, corporations today are granted so-called "rights" that empower them to deny citizens the right to full self-governance.

[Nye Bevan]

5. The office is almost certainly corporate-owned and rented to DU LLC,

and the computer servers and other hardware would be corporate-owned assets.

[LongTomH]

8. If you really want to study the issue of corporate personhood, can I suggest...

...you spend some time on Move to Amend's Frequently Asked Questions page and/or their Recommended Reading page, and yes, I need to spend some time there too.

In October, 2011, I submitted a post about the the 1886 Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad decision by another corrupt Supreme Court which fastened the concept of corporate personhood on us.

There's a lot of information out on the web for those willing to do a little digging. I do suggest my colleagues do their homework before they defend the idea that "corporations are people."

[Nye Bevan]

9. I already saw their web site.

It's an extremely poorly thought through proposal with absolutely zero chance of coming anywhere near passing. They are simply doing it to cash in on donations.

[MightyOkie]

10. Yep.

And it's moronic to boot. These sort of "statement" laws may in principle sound helpful but they really dumb down society.

[HopeHoops]

11. Short, concise, and clear. I like it.

[chieftain]

12. I'm proud of my hometown. n/t

[LongTomH]

13. Much thanks to Chieftan and HopeHoops!

I'll do my best to keep you informed. The fight to overturn Citizens United has just begun!