Madison Activists Push Resolution To Deny Constitutional Rights To Corporations

By on April 13, 2011 in News 10

800px-Constitution_We_the_PeopleWisconsin activists seek support in the belief that corporations don’t deserve the same constitutional rights as citizens. Isthmus reports:

Kaja Rebane wants Dane County residents to send a message that corporations aren’t people and money isn’t speech.

The UW-Madison grad student helped organize a successful effort to put referenda on the April 5 ballot in both the city of Madison and Dane County. It ask voters whether they believe corporations and people, and money and speech, should be considered distinct.

The local movement, spearheaded by South Central Wisconsin Move to Amend, is part of a national one that aims to amend the U.S. Constitution, to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 21, 2010, decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That controversial ruling, passed 5-4, found that the government could not restrict corporate spending on independent political advertisements, saying this violated the First Amendment.

While organizing on this issue is being done nationwide, Dane County is one of the first to hold a referendum on it. “People are watching what’s going on here,” Rebane says. “Across the country, we’re being leaders here.”

[Continues at Isthmus]

, , , ,

  • War against obfuscation

    Here is a fairly long but riveting read for those interested in finding out more about the history of the corporation in amurka; mr. hartmann actually disproved the 1886 historical argument for corporate personhood in his latest book:

    http://www.truthout.org/unequal-protection-boston-tea-party-revealed/1301986800

  • War against obfuscation

    Here is a fairly long but riveting read for those interested in finding out more about the history of the corporation in amurka; mr. hartmann actually disproved the 1886 historical argument for corporate personhood in his latest book:

    http://www.truthout.org/unequal-protection-boston-tea-party-revealed/1301986800

  • MoralDrift

    The battle over corporate rights is truly the central battle for free persons in the early 21st century.

    ideas little changed since the enlightenment are again undergoing change, we have to take the lead on this and ensure that we maintain our own inalienable rights as living, breathing, humans. The rights of fictional or AI entities may start out seeming rather trivial but may end with all sorts of unintended consequences, its essential that we define persons as flesh-born

    • Bud Bundy

      At the point of a bayonet if need be.

  • Anonymous

    The battle over corporate rights is truly the central battle for free persons in the early 21st century

  • Anonymous

    Coprporate personhood may have started with this case:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad

    But … “The court reporter, former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company, J.C. Bancroft Davis, wrote the following as part of the headnote for the case:

    ” ‘The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.’[5]

    “In other words, corporations enjoyed the same rights under the Fourteenth Amendment as did natural persons.[6] However, this issue is absent from the court’s opinion itself.”

    In other words, the whole corporate personhood issue is a house of cards.

  • Anonymous_Reader

    Coprporate personhood may have started with this case:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad

    But … “The court reporter, former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company, J.C. Bancroft Davis, wrote the following as part of the headnote for the case:

    ” ‘The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.’[5]

    “In other words, corporations enjoyed the same rights under the Fourteenth Amendment as did natural persons.[6] However, this issue is absent from the court’s opinion itself.”

    In other words, the whole corporate personhood issue is a house of cards.

    • http://www.JeremiahStanghini.com/ Jeremiah Stanghini

      The Canadian documentary, “The Corporation,” highlights this case and explains that corporations becoming “persons,” like you’ve said, was actually an ‘error.’

      I wonder if there is any sort of movement (underground or overt?) to right this mistake?

      With Love and Gratitude,

      Jeremiah

  • http://www.GenuineThriving.com/ Jeremiah Stanghini

    The Canadian documentary, “The Corporation,” highlights this case and explains that corporations becoming “persons,” like you’ve said, was actually an ‘error.’

    I wonder if there is any sort of movement (underground or overt?) to right this mistake?

    With Love and Gratitude,

    Jeremiah

  • Bud Bundy

    At the point of a bayonet if need be.