OVERRULE THE COURT

Lisa Marie Jacobs, 24.02.2010 08:03

On Thursday, Feb. 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Bellview Grange, David Cobb and Riki Ott will be visiting Ashland to lead a community dialogue about the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United that gives corporations individual's rights, and how we can join the movement to abolish corporate "personhood."

"The Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations to give unlimited amounts of money to politicians has many of us scrambling to do something to protect democracy."--Vanessa Houk

OVERRULE THE COURT

David Cobb and Riki Ott, coalition organizers in the Campaign to Legalize Democracy, will hold a forum from 7 to 9 pm. on Thursday, February 25 at Bellview Grange, 1050 Tolman Creek Rd., in Ashland to help local citizens learn how they can work to abolish corporate personhood and reestablish a government of, by, and for the people.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case to open the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending on elections, a new national coalition of diverse public interest, community, and business organizations responded with a call to overrule the decision and amend the Constitution to restore the power of people over corporations. “Corporate personhood” commonly refers to court-created precedent that gives corporations constitutional rights intended solely for human beings. Corporate personhood is not an inconsequential legal technicality. The Supreme Court ruled that a corporation was a “legal person” with 14th Amendment protections before they granted full personhood to African-Americans, immigrants, natives, or women.

“We are inspired by historic social movements that recognized the necessity of altering fundamental power relationships,” said Riki Ott, the Director of Ultimate Civics and a marine toxicologist whose activism was galvanized by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. “America has progressed through ordinary people joining together - from the Revolutionaries to Abolitionists, Suffragists, Trade Unionists, and Civil Rights activists through to today.”

“The movement we are launching is a long-term effort to make the U.S. Constitution more democratic,” notes David Cobb, the Director of the Program on Corporations Law & Democracy and an attorney helping to lead the coalition. “We are a diverse coalition with deep roots in communities nationwide. We recognize that amending the Constitution to restore the power of the people over corporations will not be easy, but we know correcting the Supreme Court is imperative to the progress of our nation.” More than 60,000 people have signed an online petition supporting a constitutional amendment at  http://www.movetoamend.org. Move to Amend is a project of The Campaign to Legalize Democracy.

David Cobb was the Green Party nominee for President of the United States in 2004, and served as the General Counsel for the national Green Party from its creation until 2003 when he launched his campaign. Cobb’s legal career has been dedicated to challenging illegitimate corporate power. In 2002 he ran for state Attorney General in Texas, pledging to revoke the charters of corporations that repeatedly broke heath, safety and environmental laws. Cobb is a national spokesperson for The Campaign to Legalize Democracy, a principal with the Program on Corporations Law & Democracy ( http://www.poclad.org) and Campaigns Director for Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County ( http://www.duhc.org).

Riki Ott, Ph.D., is a marine toxicologist and commercial fisherma'm who was one of the first people on the scene at the Exxon Valdez oil spill, when millions of gallons of crude oil discharged from the tanker in the single most devastating environmental catastrophe in U.S. history. For 20 years, Ott has been the voice and face of efforts for justice.
She is also the star of the award-winning documentary Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez. The film tells the tale of the battle between commercial fisherpersons against Exxon-Mobil, the largest corporation in the world. The struggle is ongoing, and Ott continues to be a key player in that story. Based on her experiences, Ott founded Ultimate Civics ( http://www.ultimatecivics.org) and is touring the country calling for an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to strip corporations of the ability to claim to be "persons" under the law.

See COMMENT below by Nancy Price and David e. Delk: "Strip Corporations of ‘personhood’"

e-mail:: nowcoop@gmail.com
Homepage:: http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org

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Strip Corporations of ‘personhood’ 15.02.2010 - 20:57 Strip Corporations of ‘personhood’ By Nancy Price and David e. Delk If you ask someone on the street whether “a corporation is a person,” most laugh and say, “no, of course not!” But the January 21 5-4 majority decision of the US Supreme Court found for Citizens United against the Federal Election Commission, and not only expanded the free speech rights of corporations under the First Amendment to spend unlimited money for or against candidates in elections, but in so doing, further entrenched the controversial legal doctrine of “corporate personhood” as the law of the land. Why is a corporation a person with a voice? Corporations are artificial entities created by people through charters for specific economic purposes granted by states and subject to state and federal laws. Throughout the 19th century, corporations unsuccessfully attempted through the Supreme Court to get out from under government regulation and accountability to the people. Then, finally, in 1886 in a case about taxes, the Court asserted without explanation that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to guarantee equal protection and citizenship rights to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, applied to corporations. Now, corporations had rights and protection under the Constitution. This at a time when women, Native Americans and most African-American men did not have the right to vote! Finally, in 1976, almost a century later, the “corporate person” found its voice, when the Supreme Court ruled that corporate money equaled speech under the First Amendment (Buckley v. Valeo). Money began to flow into political campaigns. In response, state legislatures and Congress moved to enact laws to regulate corporate money in politics. But, now, the Robert's Supreme Court has overturned precedent, provoking a national cry of outrage that corporations can claim political and civil rights to overturn democratically-enacted laws and to elect candidates of their choosing. The Case. The Supreme Court first heard the case in March 2009. Citizens United, a nonprofit Virginia corporation, produced a film attacking Hillary Clinton, “Hillary: The Movie,” during the 2008 primary elections and the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) had barred release of the film after concluding it was a corporate-funded electioneering advertisement, not a documentary as Citizens United claimed. Thus, under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold Act), the film could not be shown within 60 days of the election. This is the ruling that Citizen’s United went to court to challenge. In a very unusual move at the end of June, the Court went out of its way to ask for new briefs and re-argument. In this way, the Court signaled it wanted to broaden the scope of Citizens United beyond what was argued in the lower court to examine the issue of corporate political speech more broadly in regard to the First Amendment and two important earlier campaign finance cases relating to state and federal elections. Fast-tracking the case, the Court wanted briefs by July 31st, with oral argument set for September 9. More “friend of the court” briefs were submitted for this case than in the entire history of the Court. Over the summer, newspaper editorials and op-eds warned that a broad ruling would allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money from their treasuries in elections for or against candidates, and would be a threat to democracy by allowing corporations to dominate the political process. In fact, the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturned a century of campaign finance laws going back to the 1907 Tillman Act, the first legislation prohibiting corporate money in national political campaigns. Now, corporations, including U.S. subsidiaries of foreign multinational corporations, can spend unlimited amounts of money to buy the election results they want and manipulate politics and policy in their self interest. A crucial basis for this decision is that corporations, as “persons,” enjoy free-speech rights. Why it Matters? Many would argue that the problem is not that corporations are people, but that it is just regulating money in politics. But as Jeffrey Clements, a lawyer, points out in “Beyond Citizens United v. FEC: Re-Examining Corporate Rights,” since the 1970s corporations have aggressively used the First Amendment to strike down state and federal laws from “those concerning clean air and fair elections; to environmental protection and energy; to tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and health care; to consumer protection, lottery, and gambling; to race relations, and much more.” What’s even more important and less known is that once corporations became “people,” their lawyers began to get more “rights” for them. In 1893, corporations were granted “due process” under the 5th Amendment; in 1906, they got 4th Amendment search and seizure protections; in 1922 they got the “takings” clause of the 5th Amendment in which a regulatory law is deemed a “takings.” A fundamental doctrine of all free trade agreements allows multinational corporations to sue a national government for federal or state regulations that impacts or “takes” their profit-making abilities. What Can “We, the People” Do? In anticipation of this ruling, a broad and deep coalition of groups came together to form the Campaign to Legalize Democracy with a call to amend the Constitution. One hour after the Supreme Court opinion was released, the Campaign launched the “Move to Amend” website calling for people to support an amendment to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights. Other campaigns are focused solely on denying or limiting corporations First Amendment rights and limiting money in politics. These are only half measures. A Constitutional amendment is need to deny corporations personhood and thereby stripping corporations of all constitutional rights conferred on them piecemeal by the Supreme Court over the decades. The Robert's Supreme Court upset the wrong precedent; they should have overturned the precedent giving human rights to a non-human entity, the corporation. As of this writing, one week later, more than 50,000 people have signed the “Motion to Amend.” Please join this movement to take back our Democracy. Nancy Price is Co-Chair of the Alliance for Democracy  http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org) and member of the Steering Committee of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy. David e. Delk is President of the Portland Chapter of the Alliance for Democracy. For a brief introduction read, “Abolish Corporate Personhood,” by Molly Morgan and Jan Edwards on the web. By Nancy Price and David e. Delk> Homepage:: http://