Bernie Has Started It

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to amend the Constitution in order to reverse the Citizens United decision and end corporate personhood. I recently posted a version of such an amendment as hashed out on an online forum, but I am perfectly happy with this one. It gets most of the job done. There would be some legislative battles even with the amendment in place, but this would be a death blow to corporate control of our government.

Here’s the link to Senator Sander’s website.

Here’s the relevant text, below. Enjoy. And get behind this. If you live in Vermont, send a letter of support to Bernie and a “Get with the program” message to Senator Leahy and Representative Welch. If you live elsewhere, send the link to your elected representatives and tell them to get with the program. I declare this a litmus test for all politicians – 99% versus 1%, democracy versus plutocracy, however you want to phrase it.

Send word of this bill to your friends and family all over the country. This is the deciding issue of our times: Who will govern, corporations or people? Either we win this battle or we lose all the rest with it.

3          ‘‘ARTICLE—

4          ‘‘SECTION 1. The rights protected by the Constitution

5          of the United States are the rights of natural persons and

6          do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability

7          companies, or other private entities established for busi

8          ness purposes or to promote business interests under the

9           laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.

10        ‘‘SECTION 2. Such corporate and other private enti

11        ties established under law are subject to regulation by the

12        people through the legislative process so long as such regu

13        lations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the

14        States and do not limit the freedom of the press.

15        ‘‘SECTION 3. Such corporate and other private enti

16        ties shall be prohibited from making contributions or ex

17        penditures in any election of any candidate for public of

18        fice or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the

19        people.

20        ‘‘SECTION 4. Congress and the States shall have the

21        power to regulate and set limits on all election contribu

22        tions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spend

23        ing, and to authorize the establishment of political com

24        mittees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources

25        of those contributions and expenditures.’’.

Amendments

As I reported last time, I am working with a group of people online, trying to formulate a couple of Amendments to the Constitution. The purpose of the amendments would be to get corporate influence out of government and to reform campaign finance laws so that the 99% of us who earn ordinary incomes have a voice equal to the 1% who can pour tens of thousands of dollars into the political process.

The origin of this particular online effort comes from a political commentator named Cenk Uygur, who has a show called The Young Turks. He created an organization called the WolfPAC, which is aligned with Occupy Wall Street. The goal is to organize a state by state campaign for these constitutional amendments. I’ll sum up his original, somewhat colloquial proposal this way:

Corporations are not persons.

Campaign contributions are not protected by the Constitution

Only citizens can contribute

Contributions are limited in size

I added this concept:

Contributions are restricted to constituents

The online discussions continue, but I have formulated a working proposal. Some of this is my wording, some is others. A college student named Lam Nguyen has organized the online forum and has had a lot of influence. I’ll lay it out for you in full, and then go through it with some explanation. Believe me, every word of this has been hashed and rehashed.

28^th Amendment

Section 1: Only natural persons shall have the rights protected under the U.S. Constitution.

Section 2: Incorporated for-profit entities are forbidden to interfere with elections, legislation, or the conduct of government.

Section 3: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

29^th Amendment

Section 1: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, contributions of money or gifts in kind to candidates for public office, or to organizations engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, are not protected acts under the U.S. Constitution.

Section 2: Only U.S. Citizens shall be allowed to contribute money or gifts in kind to a candidate for public office, or to an organization engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative.

Section 3: No candidate for any elected office, or organization engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, shall be permitted to receive more than a sum equal to sixteen times the federal hourly minimum wage, in contributions of any form, excluding volunteer labor, for any purpose, from any individual during an election cycle. All contributions must be fully disclosed in amount and source.

Section 4: All campaign expenditures shall be comprised entirely of campaign contributions. Candidates as private citizens may contribute to their campaigns within the limits and restrictions of this amendment.

Section 5: All contributions to candidates for public office, or to organizations engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, must be raised from the constituents of the elected office in question or legal residents of the jurisdiction affected.

Section 6: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Perhaps you are saying to yourselves, “I knew James Madison, and you, sir, are no James Madison.” In this case I want to know the secret of your longevity, but it is true that I am not a writer in the 18^th century style. I have tried to pare away the unnecessary and to achieve the fine balance between specificity and generality. The result is not always graceful. Let me explain.

28^th Amendment

Section 1: Only natural persons shall have the rights protected under the U.S. Constitution.

This reverses the near-universally misinterpreted Supreme Court decision of 1886, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Read Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann for details, but the court clerk, a former railroad lawyer, added his own spin to the decision by declaring that corporations were protected as persons under the 14^th Amendment. This contradicted common sense, legal precedent, and the explicit commentary of those who wrote the 14^th Amendment, as well as the Santa Clara decision itself, but no matter.

It was, and is, ridiculous to consider an artificial, unconscious, immortal, amoral legal entity in the same legal light as a human being, but that’s the way we have been operating for the past century. Corporations have accumulated both power over government and immunity from government in ways that have distorted our legislative process and made the government act against the general public interest. This amendment restricts the protections of the Constitution to human beings (“natural persons” being the legal term of art) and renders any protections to corporations mere privileges, which may be revoked.

Section 2: Incorporated for-profit entities are forbidden to interfere with elections, legislation, or the conduct of government.

This is reasonably self explanatory. These amoral legal fictions we call corporations are rendered politically impotent.

Section 3: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

A must have for implementation.

29^th Amendment

Section 1: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, contributions of money or gifts in kind to candidates for public office, or to organizations engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, are not protected acts under the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Court made the absurd decision in Buckley v Valeo that donating money to a campaign constituted protected political speech. The Court neglected to explain how we would all somehow manage to obtain equal amounts of money so that millionaires wouldn’t have greater rights than those of modest income. As it stands, money is so effective at determining the outcome of elections that it is more analogous to voting than speech. It is not democracy when wealthy people and corporations have more votes than everyone else. This section places financial contributions in the realm of legislation.

Section 2: Only U.S. Citizens shall be allowed to contribute money or gifts in kind to a candidate for public office, or to an organization engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative.

Again, this is reasonably self explanatory. No foreigners or corporations are allowed to finance lobbying, campaigns, or ballot measures.

Section 3: No candidate for any elected office, or organization engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, shall be permitted to receive more than a sum equal to sixteen times the federal hourly minimum wage, in contributions of any form, excluding volunteer labor, for any purpose, from any individual during an election cycle. All contributions must be fully disclosed in amount and source.

This one levels the playing field. I have written before about the 90% success rate of high spenders in primary campaigns and our millionaire-friendly donation limits. This amendment pegs the maximum donation to the income of the least well paid among us. It will increase or decrease in value along with their fortunes. Warren Buffet and the guy who mows Warren Buffet’s lawn will have equal political clout.

Section 4: All campaign expenditures shall be comprised entirely of campaign contributions. Candidates as private citizens may contribute to their campaigns within the limits and restrictions of this amendment.

What will prevent candidates from borrowing money from wealthy donors or millionaires buying their way in? This amendment.

Section 5: All contributions to candidates for public office, or to organizations engaged in influencing legislation, the outcome of an election, or a ballot initiative, must be raised from the constituents of the elected office in question or legal residents of the jurisdiction affected.

Why should I be able to influence an election in California, or a Californian influence an election in Vermont? I shouldn’t and he or she shouldn’t. Neither of us has legal standing in the other’s political process. I can’t vote in California, for obvious reasons, but I can presently donate to Californian candidates, lobbying firms, political action committees, and the like. It’s just not right.

Section 6: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

As is necessary.

I don’t expect this particular wording to survive a trip through the Constitutional Convention process, or even the online process. However, it does contain the basic principles needed to place political power in the hands of ordinary citizens. Even passing just the proposed Section 1 of the 28^th Amendment would get us a long way towards some version of a functional democracy.

Whether or not you find this particular wording satisfying, I hope you will promote the concepts involved. Talk to your friends, do the Facebook thing, and maybe even get involved with WolfPAC and its forum, the 99 Declaration, or Occupy Wall Street. Creating democracy is a democratic process.