Vermont Introduces Resolution to Amend US Constitution, Ban Corporate Personhood

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://morallowground.com/2011/01/23/vermont-introduces-resolution-to-amend-us-constitutionban-corporate-personhood/

23rd January 2011 · 14 Comments
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It’s been one year since the US Supreme Court decided that corporations are people and money is free speech. The disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling destroyed over a century of restrictions on corporate influence of our nation’s electoral process, accelerating the already alarming corporate takeover of American politics. The consequences of Citizens United were almost immediately felt in the form of a $290,000,000 special interest spending orgy in the 2010 midterm elections. Much of this money represented foreign corporate interests, and it played a significant role in the conservative resurgence that saw Republicans re-gain control of the House of Representatives.

Justice John Paul Stevens’ stirring dissenting opinion argued that “the Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation. It will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress, and the states to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.” Stevens also wrote: “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 whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

In that spirit, Vermont state senator Virginia Lyons has introduced an anti-corporate personhood resolution in the state legislature. JRS 11 is a “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.” The resolution continues:

[jerseyjack]

1. This is a good step but Vermont and other states should go further by calling

for a Constitutional Convention to correct this wrong. The convention would likely never take place because the powers in D.C. would propose the amendment before the issue got to the level of a full blown convention.

[Initech]

16. How many times must it be repeated that a new CC is a bad idea?

Last edited Sat Dec 31, 2011, 10:34 PM - Edit history (1)

It won't result in the end of corporate personhood. A new CC is the wet dream of Xtian fundamentalists everywhere - it will have the opposite effects and result in the rise of a theocratic corporaticracy.

[dogknob]

2. Your link is dead. n/t

[libmom74]

3. Several of the

people in the FB group Occupy Seattle tried to link to this article and others but were unable to for about an hour, once it came back up it not all of the same information was there. It seems SOPA has begun. The censorship of the internet just like in Iran and China brought to you by a "Democratic" administration.

Also got this message from another OS poster: Just got this message from a member of Occupy Seattle:

"Many links are being blocked as we speak....Information is being hidden folks! I don't know what to say...things that were available last week or today, like news stories are being blocked...at least on my computer..."

[truedelphi]

7. I find that if I visit an "Occupy" site to read about what is going on,

My computer starts acting strangely within minutes of that visit.

[RainDog]

4. k&r n/t

[freshwest]

5. LINK WORKS FINE:

http://morallowground.com/2011/01/23/vermont-introduces-resolution-to-amend-us-constitutionban-corporate-personhood/

It worked just fine for me. That is my copy from what I got from clicking on the link in the OP.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Updates? This is almost a year old.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Blast, didn't see that. No, sorry, I know no more off the top of my head.

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. Well, I wish them well.

Hope to hear soon that this is gaining some traction.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Referred to a committee; seems stuck there

http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/status/summary.cfm?Bill=JRS011&Session=2012

There was this, from March:

Vermont state senator Virginia Lyons, who recently introduced a bill in that state's Legislature to redefine personhood (and by extension citizenship) as only applying to human beings, has been continuing to gather support for her bill in both the general population and the business community.

Representatives of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility testified in support of the bill at a hearing of the Legislature's Government Operations Committee, where the resolution will await a vote and may also be subject to "modification." Prominent Vermont businesses and businesspeople including Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's also spoke in support of the bill.

The proposed resolution is likely to get a further push at a forum organized by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, which will be held at 2 p.m. on March 5 at Montpelier High School and feature a keynote address by noted progressive radio and television host Thom Hartman, followed by a panel discussion by Lyons, Cheryl Hanna, constitutional law professor at Vermont Law School, and Rob Weissman, president of the progressive activist group Public Citizen from Washington, D.C.. For more information on the event visit http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/events/event/?id=799218a0-3947-49e3-a822-5c63cd0ffe82.
...
Senator Lyons also has been contacted by legislators from several other states, including Washington, Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey, who have expressed interest in introducing similar resolutions in their own states. In response to a question about what other meaningful steps could be taken to preserve a truly democratic government, such as banning paid lobbyists from access to legislators, Senator Lyons replied, "Every year I consider introducing either a rule change for the House and Senate or a resolution to keep registered lobbyists from the State House for one day a week or month. I may do that sooner or later."

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13212

And from a month ago:

http://www.progressiveparty.org/media/2011/vermont-pols-push-end-corporate-personhood

[47of74]

9. And if I had my way

An attempt to circumvent this amendment would join treason and counterfeiting as the few crimes mentioned in the constitution.

[limpyhobbler]

11. we should end corporate personhood right away

It will probably take at least 10 years of concerted effort to pass this amendment if at all.

[tclambert]

12. If corporations are people, shouldn't they have the right to vote?

CEOs get to vote twice, once for themselves, and once on behalf of the corporate "person." If I can afford to create many, many corporations shouldn't I get to vote many, many times?

[Lucky Luciano]

15. They vote multiple times already. One dollar = one vote. nt

[66 dmhlt]

14. Corporations can NOT be people ... at least not until Texas executes one of them

[Odin2005]

17. The time has come for a Constitutional Convention.