Move to Amend is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization that seeks to blunt corporate power by
amending the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
to end
corporate personhood
Corporate personhood or juridical personality is the legal notion that a juridical person such as a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and respons ...
and state that money is not speech. The group was created in response to the 2010
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruling ''
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'', which held that corporations have a
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
right to make expenditures from their general treasuries supporting or opposing candidates for political office, arguing that the Court's decision disrupts the democratic process by granting disproportionate influence to the wealthy.
Move to Amend advocates for the
"We the People" Amendment, currently in Congress as , to establish that
constitutional rights
A constitutional right can be a prerogative or a duty, a power or a restraint of power, recognized and established by a sovereign state or union of states. Constitutional rights may be expressly stipulated in a national constitution, or they may ...
are reserved for
natural persons
In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the broad ...
only and require the regulation and disclosure of spending in
U.S. elections.
Background
In 2009, several national organizations including the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
, the
Program on Corporations, and Democracy (POCLAD) and
Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (DUHC) submitted an
amicus curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
authored by former Massachusetts assistant attorney general
Jeff Clements to the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in ''
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'', a U.S. constitutional law case concerning the regulation of
independent political expenditures by
corporations
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
, which the non-profit organization
Citizens United
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
challenged on the grounds of violating the
First Amendment’s freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
. The brief argued against Citizens United and called for the court to reverse its precedents on corporate personhood, citing the 1886 case of ''
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co.
''Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company'', 118 U.S. 394 (1886), is a corporate law case of the United States Supreme Court concerning taxation of railroad properties. The case is most notable for a headnote stating that the Equa ...
'' that preceded the extension of constitutional protections to corporations under the
Fourteenth Amendment.
When the Court ruled to allow for corporations to make political expenditures from their general treasuries under the First Amendment's
free speech rights in January 2010, several organizers and attorneys from those organizations behind the brief launched Move to Amend as a national campaign to overturn the ''Citizens United'' ruling, arguing that the Court’s decision disrupts the democratic process by granting disproportionate influence to the wealthy with the intent of promoting corporate power at the expense of ordinary citizens.
Resolutions and ballot campaigns
Move to Amend's strategy has included
grassroots organizing
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
to lobby elected officials and candidates to pass local resolutions and
ordinances through
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
, which call on state and federal representatives to support a
28th Amendment and may include holding a "Democracy Day" public hearing. As of July 2019, over 800
local governments
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
and 20
states have passed resolutions and ordinances supporting a constitutional amendment to address the ''Citizens United'' ruling. Over 300 resolutions were passed by voters via ballot initiatives, including statewide initiatives in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
.
Local affiliates of Move to Amend have helped pass many such resolutions supporting the language of the We the People Amendment, including the
Los Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles in California.
The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The President of the Los Angeles City Counc ...
which voted unanimously to end constitutional rights for corporations in 2011.
In Ohio, local ordinances supporting the amendment and creating a "Democracy Day" public hearing to examine the local impact of political influence by corporations have been passed by municipal governments and voters via ballot initiatives, including Cleveland and Toledo.
In Wisconsin, over 100 municipalities have passed resolutions, comprising 55% of Wisconsin residents.
Leadership
The group has included organizers and attorneys from several national organizations among its leadership, including:
* Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Move to Amend’s national director and director of Democracy Unlimited of
Humboldt County
*
David Cobb, 2004
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
presidential candidate and principal of POCLAD
*
Riki Ott Riki is a given name. It is a gender-neutral name in Japan (written: or ). Notable people with the name include:
*Riki (footballer, born 1980), Spanish footballer Iván Sánchez-Rico Soto
*Riki (footballer, born 1997), Spanish footballer Ricardo R ...
, a co-director of
Ultimate Civics, is a co-founder
*
Ben Manski
The 2012 presidential campaign of Jill Stein was announced on October 24, 2011. Jill Stein, a physician from Massachusetts, gave indication in August 2011 that she was considering running for President of the United States with the Green Party in ...
, an executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation
*
George Friday, national steering committee member of the Independent Progressive Politics Network
*
Lisa Graves
Lisa Graves is a Progressivism in the United States, progressive activist who is the executive director of True North Research and president of the board of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She served as executive director for CMD from 200 ...
, executive director for the
Center for Media and Democracy
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org.
History
CMD was founded in 1993 by progr ...
*
Nancy Price
Nancy Price, CBE (3 February 1880 – 31 March 1970), was an English actress on stage and screen, author and theatre director. Her acting career began in a repertory theatre company before progressing to the London stage, silent films, talkies and ...
, co-chair of the
Alliance for Democracy and committee chair for
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom
*
Jerome Scott, a member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and founding director of
Project South
*
Laura Bonham, a co-founder of
Progressive Democrats of America
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is a progressive political organization and grassroots political action committee operating primarily within the Democratic Party of the United States. The group has established chapters in 32 states and te ...
and co-chair of the
Justice Party
*
Maria Agosto, a member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)
References
External links
*
__NOTOC__
{{authority control
Electoral reform groups in the United States
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Campaign finance reform in the United States
Corporate personhood
Anti-corporate activism