My July 20 column about
constitutional amendments stirred up a response I had not expected. I did
receive several favorable comments or suggested expansions from local readers
about my suggestion for a constitutional amendment making it clear that
corporations and associations are not people and are not entitled to the civil
rights guaranteed by the Constitution. A series of Supreme Court decisions from
the 19th century all the way to the recent Citizens United decision
had made corporations the same as people, insofar as legal protections are
concerned.
My suggestion was one of
several collected by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation after the
foundation’s CEO asked for suggestions from readers of amendments that should
be included in the Constitution.
What I didn’t expect was an
email from Greg Coleridge, outreach director at the Move to Amend Coalition.
MTA Coalition (movetoamend.org) had basically the same idea, reducing the power
of wealthy commercial operations by not allowing corporations to claim the
rights owed to individuals.
Move To Amend has already
managed to get a proposed amendment (Joint House Resolution 48) introduced into
the U.S. House. It is called The We the People Amendment. Section One of the
proposed amendment states simply: “Artificial entities such as corporations do
not have constitutional rights.”
Section Two states “Money is
not free speech.” Joint House Resolution 48, introduced Feb. 22, 2019, contains
additional details (all available at the MTA website), such as “The rights
protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of ‘natural
persons’ only.” That’s under Section One. In Section Two, the amendment allows
federal, state and local governments to regulate campaign contributions,
including the candidate’s own contributions. It also requires that
contributions to federal, state and local candidates be “fully disclosed.”
Furthermore, spending money to influence elections shall not be construed by
the judiciary to be free speech under the First Amendment.
Section Three has only one
sentence: “Nothing in this amendment will be construed to abridge freedom of
the press.”
This proposed amendment is a
more carefully studied and drafted proposal than the concept I suggested to the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. It addresses the corrosive influence of
corporations as well as the lopsided influence of large political donations and
limitless campaign spending. If passed and ratified, the We The People
Amendment would have the greatest impact on electoral politics since the demise
of the Whigs and rise of the Republican Party 150 years ago.
Imagine an election in which
all candidates are evenly matched in terms of access to campaign spending.
Neither wealthy individuals nor wealthy corporations would have an outsized
influence in elections. Corporate lobbyists would have no more influence than
individual constituents in determining the fate of bills in Congress.
Individuals’ right to “petition the government for redress of grievances” would
mean something. Large corporations would not be able to shove public citizens
aside and get laws passed in their favor.
I find it a little exciting that a constitutional amendment that would correct several problems with the current political scene has actually been introduced
in Congress, where hearings could refine any rough spots or potential
unintended consequences in the proposed amendment. But then I remember that
amendments to the Constitution are inherently difficult to enact with the
required two-thirds majority vote in Congress and ratification by three-fourths
of the states.
This
amendment makes sense. The last amendment to be ratified was the 27th Amendment
(limiting congressional pay raises) in 1992. That amendment had foundered
unratified for 203 years after clearing Congress until a grassroots effort
revived it.
The
We The People Amendment deserves a vote in Congress and consideration by the
states. It won’t make it into the Constitution without pressure from “we the
people.”
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