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Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of "We the People" by who and for whom our Constitution was established." John Paul Stevens US Supreme Court Justice
Welcome to Oregon "We the People"The Oregon "We The People" initiative will allow Oregon voters to answer the question: Shall the US Constitution be amended to say that Corporations are not people and that Money is not speech?
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January 2010 was a movement building experience. The US Supreme Court issued it's decision in Citizens United v FEC, reaffirming it's mistaken belief that money equals speech. The court's first decision stating this was the Buckley v Valeo decision (1976). Both these decisions as well as others in between and since have characterized money in political situations as being first amendment speech, instead of property. Had they found that money is property, laws allowing limitations or bans on money in politics by federal, state and local communities would be constitutional. Instead the courts have unleashed more and more money in the political system and our democracy is quickly turning into a plutocracy, rule by the wealthy.
The Citizens United decision got people all riled up and began a democracy movement to set aside the court's decisions by amending the US Constitution to say that Money is Not Speech! We not only believe that money is property and not speech, we also believe that corporations are not people. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly said that because they believe that corporations have constitutional rights as if they are people, we cannot deny them equal protection of the laws. This has had huge consequences for democratic decision-making because corporations use those court given rights to undermine the decisions "We the People" make, Right now Monsanto is using its court-created rights to challenge a Hawaiian law which regulates GMO foods on the basis that if bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, then the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause should also apply to them. Another older case (Pennsylvania Coal Co. v Mahon [1922]) gave corporations 5th amendment protections from "takings". The Takings clause states "... nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." The State of Pennsylvania passed a law saying it was illegal to dig under houses causing them to collapse. The Supreme Court overturned this law, saying that such laws took profit making opportunities from the companies. Entire towns were undermined for coal extraction and sank as a result. And this decision has been the basis for opposing and thwarting environmental laws ever since. So, we want a constitutional amendment that says Corporations are not people and that money is not speech. |
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