NORTHAMPTON (City) MODEL

THE RESOLUTION: A municipal resolution should spark community conversation. Northampton residents are encouraged to comment via Facebook on the following draf

WHEREAS, We the people adopted and ratified the United States Constitution to protect the free speech and other rights of people, not corporations;

WHEREAS, Corporations are not people but instead are entities created by the law of states and nations;

WHEREAS, for the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has erroneously transformed the First Amendment into a powerful tool for corporations seeking to evade and invalidate the people’s laws;

WHEREAS, this corporate misuse of the First Amendment and Constitution has reached an extreme conclusion in the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission;

WHEREAS, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from spending corporate general treasury funds in our elections;

WHEREAS, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission unleashes a torrent of corporate money in our political process unmatched by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history;

WHEREAS, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission purports to invalidate state laws and even state Constitutional provisions separating corporate money from elections;

WHEREAS, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission presents a serious and direct threat to our republican democracy;

WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution empowers and obligates the people and states of the United States of America to use the constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and republican self-government; and

WHEREAS, the people and states of the United States of America have strengthened the nation and preserved liberty and equality for all by using the amendment process throughout our history, including in seven of the ten decades of the 20th Century, and including to reverse seven erroneous Supreme Court decisions.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT WE CALL UPON THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PASS AND SEND TO THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REVERSE CITIZENS UNITED V. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION AND TO RESTORE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND FAIR ELECTIONS TO THE PEOPLE.

Website:
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org