Legislators Susan Fisher, Patsy Keever, and Ray Rapp have lent their support to the nationwide move to amend, a call to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of CItizen's United. A main result of that decision has declared that corporations are people under U.S. law. Activists claim this has tilted the political landscape much more towards corporate control of elections. As Rep. Ray Rapp of Madison County pointed out, "This should be a bi-partisan issue, as this takes the rights of candidates to decide how to run their campaigns."
The resolution is a call from the states to the U.S. Congress to set aside a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the only manner possible — a constitutional amendment which has happened successfully four times, the most recent of which was the Twenty-sixth Amendment (allowing 18-year olds to vote). Others were the 11th, 14th, and 16th amendments.
According to the Canary Coalition, which provided the video, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Vermont have already passed similar calls for the constitutional amendment. Wisconsin, Washington, Minnesota and Alaska, along with North Carolina, are actively considering it in their legislatures. (See below for the Coalition press release.)
The call on the U.S. Congress faces an uncertain future in the North Carolina General Assembly. In order to be voted on, it has to get out of the rules committee, that process should start in the next few weeks.
Video of the event, 27 minutes
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE CANARY COALITION:
On Wednesday, May 23, North Carolina legislators and activists held a press conference in the Legislative Building in Raleigh to announce the pending introduction of a state resolution to Congress calling for a constitutional amendment that will end corporate personhood and reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs the Federal Elections Commission.Read the full article
The states of Hawaii, New Mexico and Vermont have already passed similar resolutions.
Resolutions have also been introduced in Wisconsin, Washington State, Alaska and Minnesota.
Numerous local resolutions have passed in North Carolina town and city councils and in county commissions urging the state to take this action.
Subscribe to XpressMail. Free Sneak Peek. Every Week.
Want to know what's coming out in Xpress this week before the paper even hits the stands?
We've got your free sneak peek, along with deals available in XpressMail, our weekly email newsletter. (It's the best we can do without time travel.)
-
Comments
-
Related Articles
-
Comments
Make a comment
I hope they're successful. While the Supreme Court, Inc. has ruled that corporations are people (ignoring 100 years of jurisprudence), they recently ruled that corporations are not liable for torture or other acts. I guess they're special 'people'
"On April 18, 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority,1 holding that only natural persons can be held liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (TVPA or Act). The TVPA, enacted in 1992 and codified as a note to the Alien Tort Statute, establishes liability against "[a]n individual who . . . subjects an individual to torture [or] extrajudicial killing" while under "actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation."2 Since its enactment, the TVPA has been invoked on dozens of occasions against individual, corporate, and other organizational defendants in a variety of settings.3 In Mohamad, the Court ruled that the word "individual" in the TVPA is confined to natural persons, with the result that corporate and other organizational defendants cannot be found liable under the statute."
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/177286/International+Law/United+States+Supreme+Court+Unanimously+Rules+That+Only+Natural+Persons+Not+Organizations+Can+Be+Liable+Under+Torture+Victim+Protection+Act
By Dionysis
05/29/2012
If Corporations are not people, then that should put an end to people suing companies in court.
/sarcasm
Plus, you'll never get 3/4 of the state legislatures to sign on to this. That is 38 of the 50 states, people.
By Thunder Pig
05/29/2012