Merkley: Amend constitution so corporations not considered people
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Boiled down to essentials, Occupy
Wall Street is about the growing divide
between the rich and the rest of us …
and the increasing domination of the
political system by corporations and
the rich.
Last month, nine U.S. senators took
aim at the latter with a bill to amend the
U.S. Constitution. Senate Joint Resolu-
tion 29 would restore to Congress and
K now Y our r ights
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DECEMBER 16, 2011
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
states the power to regulate corporate
spending in elections. Historically,
Congress and the state have had that au-
thority. But on Jan. 21, 2010, a 5-4 ma-
jority of the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down some restrictions on corporate
spending in political campaigns in a
case called Citizens United. Amending
the Constitution would prevent the
court from striking down similar legis-
lation in the future.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
was one of the original co-sponsors of
SJR 29; 10 others have since signed
on, bringing to 19 the number of sena-
tors sponsoring the resolution. And 14
members of the U.S. House have
signed onto companion resolutions in
the House, including Peter DeFazio
(D-Ore.) and Jim McDermott (D-
Wash.) An online petition in support of
the amendment — at reversecitizen-
sunited.com — has 120,000 signatures.
The amendment is simple: “Con-
gress shall have power to regulate the
raising and spending of money and in-
kind equivalents with respect to federal
elections, including through setting
limits on the amount of contributions
to candidates for nomination for elec-
tion to, or for election to, federal office;
and the amount of expenditures that
may be made by, in support of, or in
opposition to such candidates.” Section
2 declares that states have the same
power.
To amend the U.S. Constitution re-
quires a two-thirds vote in the House
and Senate and then ratification by
three-fourths of the states.
“I understand how difficult amend-
ing the constitution can be,” said Tom
Udall (D-N.M.), introducing the reso-
lution. “But I also believe that momen-
tum is growing to reign in the out-of-
control campaign spending. Just
because getting a constitutional
amendment through Congress and rat-
ified by the states is extremely difficult,
it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We
know our founders did not intend for
elections to be bought and paid for by
undisclosed donors operating through
secretive organizations — that is the
antithesis of democracy, and we must
do everything possible to address the
problem.”
Meanwhile, a group called Move to
Amend has gathered 150,000 signa-
tures in support of a similar constitu-
tional amendment, declaring that:
• Corporations are not people, and
that rights protected by the Constitu-
tion apply to people, not to corpora-
tions; and
• Money is not speech, and can be
regulated.
The group is planning a one day
“occupation” of federal courthouses,
including the U.S. Supreme Court, on
Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, to protest the Cit-
izens United decision.
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