Vt votes to correct Supremes’ Cit. U v. FEC— Corp not human

Excerpting, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett

The Vermont General Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) has acted in resolution urging the U.S. Congress of the United States to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States for consideration by the states “which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States or any of its jurisdictional subdivisions.”

Joint Resolution (J.R.S. 11.)
Referred and read the first time Friday, January 21, 2011, By Senators Lyons, Sears, Ashe, Ayer, Baruth, Fox, Giard, MacDonald,McCormack, Miller and Pollina

Whereas, free and fair elections are essential to American democracy and effective self-governance, and

Whereas, individual persons are rightfully recognized as the human beings who actually vote in elections, and

Whereas, corporations are legal entities that governments create and can exist in perpetuity and simultaneously in many nations, and

Whereas, they do not vote in elections and should not be categorized as persons for purposes related to elections for public office, and

Whereas, corporations are not mentioned in the United States Constitution as adopted, nor have Congress and the states recognized corporations as legal persons in any subsequent federal constitutional amendment, and

Whereas, during the 1885–1886 United States Supreme Court term, in the midst of oral arguments leading to the decision Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394, Chief Justice Waite stated that all the justices agreed that the Fourteenth Amendment’s prohibition on a state denying equal protection to a person applies to a state’s treatment of private corporations, and

Whereas, this brief but extraordinarily significant comment of Chief Justice Waite sanctioned private corporations to sue municipal and state governments for adopting laws that violate a corporation’s rights even when those laws serve to protect and defend the rights of human persons, and

Whereas, the United States Supreme Court has continued to adhere to this legal position in its jurisprudence for over a century, and most recently applied it in its decision Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, 130 S. Ct. 876, that eliminated many restrictions, including any total prohibition, on corporate spending in the electoral process, and

Whereas, the Court in Citizens has created a new and unequal playing field between human beings and corporations with respect to campaign financing, negating over a century of precedent prohibiting corporate contributions to federal election campaigns dating to the Tillman Act of 1907, and

Whereas, the Citizens decision has forced candidates for political office to divert attention from the interests and needs of their human constituents in order to raise sufficient campaign funds for election, and

Whereas, corporations are not and have never been human beings and therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and the governments that are their creators, and

Whereas, the profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings, and

Whereas, large corporations have used their so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws passed at the municipal, state, and federal levels aimed at curbing corporate abuse, and

Whereas, these judicial decisions have rendered democratically elected governments ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies, and

Whereas, large corporations own most of America’s mass media and employ those media to loudly express the corporate political agenda and to convince Americans that the primary role of human beings is that of consumers rather than sovereign citizens with democratic rights and responsibilities, and

Whereas, the only way to reverse this intolerable societal reality is to amend the United States Constitution to define persons as human beings and not corporations, now therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:

That the General Assembly urges Congress to propose an amendment to the United States Constitution for the states’ consideration which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States or any of its jurisdictional subdivisions, and be it further

Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to the Vermont Congressional Delegation.

Thereupon, the President, in his discretion, treated the joint resolution as a bill and referred it to the Committee on Government Operations.


Sources and notes
Title: JOINT RESOLUTION URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION FOR THE STATES’ CONSIDERATION WHICH PROVIDES THAT CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS UNDER THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OF ITS JURISDICTIONAL SUBDIVISIONS
Bill: J.R.S. 11 JOURNAL OF THE SENATE 70

Sponsor(s): Lyons, Virginia (Ginny), Sears, Dick, Ashe, Tim, Ayer, Claire, Baruth, Philip, Fox, Sally, Giard, Harold, MacDonald, Mark A., McCormack, Dick, Miller, Hinda, Pollina, Anthony, http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/status/sponsors.cfm?BillID=2929&Session=2012 http://www.leg.state.vt.us/ docs/2012/journal/SJ110121.pdf#page=1
Status Header Full Status: Read 1st time & treated as bill; referred to Committee on Government Operations per Rule 51, January 21, 2011 SJ 8 P. http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/status/summary.cfm?Bill=JRS011&Session=2012
The Vermont Legislative Bill Tracking System, http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/rresolut/rresolut.cfm?Session=2012
Resolutions Introduced 2011 - 2012 Legislative Session, http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/rresolut/results.cfm


Christopher Ketcham recaps on AlterNet, “A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its bizarre Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections as a form of ‘free speech’ for the corporate ‘person.’ Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent, had the task of recalling the majority to planet earth and basic common sense.

“‘Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires,’ Stevens wrote. ‘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 whom and for whom our Constitution was established.

“Fortunately, movements are afoot to reverse a century of accumulated powers and protections granted to corporations by wacky judicial decisions.

“In Vermont, state senator Virginia Lyons on Friday presented an anti-corporate personhood resolution for passage in the Vermont legislature. The resolution, the first of its kind, proposes ‘an amendment to the United States Constitution ... which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.’ Sources in the state house say it has a good chance of passing.

“Resolution Calling to Amend the Constitution Banning Corporate Personhood

Introduced in Vermont On the anniversary of the Citizens United decision, Vermont politicians are moving to deny corporations the rights that humans enjoy,” Alternet, http://www.alternet.org/rights/149620/resolution_calling_to_amend_the_constitution_banning_corporate_personhood_introduced_in_vermont


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