Join the Democracy Canvass!
If we want to pass an amendment to the Constitution, we need a majority to support the amendment.
In order to accomplish this we need to talk to people, starting with our neighbors. Please join us as we start the conversation.
Requiem for Corporate Personhood - Lunchtime Play A beautiful day -- a challenging sound system -- a fun performance! click here for more ...
Our Government and Electoral Process Need to be Fixed!
Why are approval ratings for Congress, at just 9%, at the lowest levels ever recorded? Why does a plurality of Americans believe that most members of Congress are corrupt?
This is a truly universal issue that unites us all.
Today, rather than representing We the People, Congress represents those corporations that influence and control our legislators by spending as much money as they want to help political candidates win elections. We the People need to fix this.
The goal of Move to Amend is to fix this problem by passing an amendment to the Constitution that forces Congress to once again represent We the People.
Please join us in helping to get this amendment passed.
We all know that money is part of the problem. 75% of Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and 72% support limiting corporate spending on election campaigns. While we are a divided country, this is one issue that we all, Republicans and Democrats, Tea Partiers and Occupiers, agree on.
Why we need a Constitutional Amendment
Did you know that under U.S. law, a corporation is a person? In fact, according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a corporation's right to free speech allows it to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and legislation!
No wonder our government has been bought and paid for by the most powerful and unaccountable interests in human history!
We the People have an important opportunity to roll back the runaway train of corporate power and corruption that has effectively hijacked government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
We can fix what started right here in Santa Clara County in 1886—one key is to eliminate the notion of corporate personhood from any possible interpretation of the U.S. Constitution for now and forever.
The other key is explicitly eliminating the doctrine that spending money is equivalent to exercising free speech.
It All Started Here
In 1885, the great Southern Pacific Railroad Company decided that it preferred not to pay property tax to the county of Santa Clara, California (yes that's us!).
Comparable at the time to the great conglomerates of today like Goldman-Sachs and Exxon, Southern Pacific dared the county to try to collect.
When the county did try to do so, a lawsuit followed and in 1886, a friendly United States Supreme Court found a novel way to justify the railroad's right not to pay local tax.
Affirming that under the law, corporations have the same rights as people, the court ruled that in attempting to collect property tax from Southern Pacific that differed from other counties,
Santa Clara County violated the railroad's right as a person to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Over the years things have gotten progressively and insidiously worse.
The Citizens United v. FEC Case
Almost two years ago, in January, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that because of their rights as people, under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, corporations could not be denied their first Amendment rights to free speech. In particular, the court ruled that barring political spending is equivalent to suppressing free speech, and so corporations could not be prevented from spending unlimited amounts of money to influence any and all elections.
Below, you can view a movie that describes the history and impact of corporate personhood in a humorous, but extremely informative way. It was produced by Annie Leonard at The Story of Stuff Project.
Click on the arrow below to play the movie
Click here to visit the National Move to Amend web site.
