Forum Post: Challenging Corporate Personhood and "free speech"
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 28, 2011, 11:03 p.m. EST by SaRaIam
(105)
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So can we get members of congress on board and raise money to get constitutional lawyers to challenge corporate personhood, and "free speech", ownership of property and financial contributions to political parties and campaigns?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
Let's do it, NOW!!!!!
corporations (in the usa) have rights -- people do not-
Maybe. Politicians won't "bite the hand that feeds them" so to speak, unless this guarantees them an office.
End corporate person-hood. Support the Human Worth Amendment. Learn more at: http://occupywallst.org/forum/human-worth-amendment/
You don't want to get rid of Corporate Personhood!!!!!
What you want to do is remove the political influence of corporations, and THAT is easy to do if you are focused on it.
1) Give human adults the ability to vote in an ORGANIZED yet EVEN way. I propose registered political groups, and limiting the amount a human adult can give to the political group per year, perhaps $100/year.
2) Through a public referendum, create a constitutional amendment that forbids corporate money from being spent for political means. The Supreme Court can't overturn a Constitutional Amendment. Read about the populist movement (very similar to the Occupy movement)
3) Create a government agency to; a) monitor and limit all political donations to the registered political organizations. b) regulate corporate political spending. They may be able to run informational ads on topics, but may not be able to mention and names, places, etc... c) audit and regulate the registered political groups, making sure their only source of income is donations from Adult Humans of $100 or less per year.
Pretty darn easy, and you guys have the numbers, time, resolve to get it done. Taking the corporations out of politics is what you guys want, isn't it? I've just shown you how. What you do with that information is yet to be seen.
So how are we going to abolish corporate personhood and not allow corporations to have the Supreme Court make rules that restrain people's class action suits while expanding corporations free speech rights, etc.?? The politicians will have to do something or face not getting re-elected, right? (Not to be too idealistic, but remember: We Are the 99%!!!!
Let's get the ball rolling on this one. What's step 1?
(Ignore the rightwinger responses, they're just getting scared.)
IMO, the reality of corporate "personhood" is at the core of our Republic's equity problems. I would hope that if we can agree on anything here, it would be that the Bill of Rights applies to people and has been bastardized by the government to unjustly protect corporations.
Corporations are the PROPERTY of its owners and are by no stretch of the imagination, people. The Constitution is very clear that the Bill of Rights applies only to people. What common sense measure calls a corporation a person?
In our history we have had to pass Constitutional amendments to clarify that both women and blacks are entitled to the protections of the Bill of Rights. It is time we have an amendment to state that corporations ARE NOT people. I am appalled that a gang of railroad thugs were able to extend to corporations basic human rights that only people have... our Constitutional framers must have turned over in their graves when that happened in the 1800s!
This was a very sad point in American history.
End corporate person-hood. Support the Human Worth Amendment. Learn more at: http://occupywallst.org/forum/human-worth-amendment/
Why don't you raise money to find out why the tax payers (are you part of this group?) have become secondary to corporate stockholders in the Solyndra Bankruptcy? There goes a half BILLION dollars that could have paid your tuition but now will possibly go to people who participate in the evil of Wall Street.
As a so-called "US citizen" you, too, are a corporate person. You (the general reader) are a 14th Amendment legalistic/fictional/US Citizen/person.
No, I'm not a corporate person, and the Bill of Rights is meant for the PEOPLE not for corporations.
If you don't think corporations are people, then why should they pay corporate taxes? If they don't enjoy constitutional rights, what makes them obligated to defend them?
If corporations don't have constitutionally guaranteed rights, they can equitably be taxed as a matter of law regulating commerce. I see no problem with designing laws to collect revenues as the price of doing business here.
[Deleted]
I was at your mom's house. She said to say Hi. Gosh, when someone gets that angry over an intellectual conversation, it usually means they're wrong. And I'm not one of the one percent, I make about 25k a year. But I invest my money instead of buying worthless consumer goods such as Ipads, so success may result as a side-effect.
Corporations do not have rights, they have government granted privileges and immunites/limited liabilities. There is a universe of difference between a right and a government granted set of privileges. You, too, as a so-called "US Citizen" are a corporate fiction.
So, suppose my neighbor and I set up a lemonade stand together. Can we not do anything without the government's consent? I'm trying to figure this out.
Ahhh.. that's interesting you mentioned lemonade stand. There was a recent event about that: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110802/NEWS01/708029866
You raise an excellent question which reveals the growing level of government bloating and tyranny upon the people. It is a long story but if you remain a legalistic "US Citizen" then you are beholden to the statutes and codes that are legislated into existence. You will have to renounce your legalistic/fiction status as a "person" to begin with.