On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to spend unregulated and undisclosed sums of money on elections. The Citizens United decision has led to unprecedented campaign spending by corporations, drowning out the voices of We the People. When corporations have constitutional rights, peoples’ rights become meaningless. How can one human being’s power to speak compare to a massive corporation’s ability to speak?
Mayor Sam Adams has issued a proposed resolution of the Portland City Council supporting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that makes clear that corporations are not people and money is not speech.
We need to thank the Mayor for introducing the resolution and request two primary revisions:
(1) make clear that corporations are not entitled to any constitutional rights (currently the resolution says corporations are not entitled to the SAME rights as people)
(2) remove reference to the proposed amendments currently sponsored by Oregon’s Congressional representatives as these amendments deal only with the issue of money as speech and not the issue of corporate personhood (i.e. these proposals need to be strengthened)
In addition, City Council should refer an initiative to Portland voters so that we can make our voices heard on this critical issue.
Click here to sign this petition and send a strong message to Portland City officials and Congress that we need a U.S. constitutional amendment that makes clear that only people are entitled to the rights of the U.S. constitution and money is not speech! An email will be sent with your message to Mayor Adams and the City Commissioners.
