Personhood: Corporate Personhood

"On January 21st, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions." — MoveToAmend.Org, dedicated to ending corporate rule and empowering democracy. ¹

Move To Amend (Learn More)

By definition, Corporate Personhood allows corporations to have rights and responsibilities similar to those of a natural person. By way of the Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution (adopted on July 9th, 1868), our courts have interpreted the word "person" to extended certain constitutional protections to corporations. MoveToAmend.Org is a bold coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to ending the illegitimate but legal doctrines that prevent the American people from governing themselves. ²

Motion To Amend (Learn More)

"Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires," wrote Stevens. "Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established." — John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Dissenting Opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010) ³

MoveToAmend.Org's "Motion To Amend" ⁴ reads as follows:

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

• Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
• Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.
• Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

Personhood: Human Personhood

"Act XII—Negro Womens Children To Serve According To The Condition Of The Mother: WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any christian shall committ ffornication with a Negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act." — Act XII, Laws of Virginia, December 1662, Hening, Statutes at Large, 2: 170. ⁵

California Human Rights Amendment (Learn More)

Even before the foundation of the United States of America (Virginia, December 1662 ⁶), our leaders have repeatedly and deliberately failed to understand that personhood is intrinsic to being human. Today, the California Human Rights Amendment ⁷ understands this and gives "We, the People of the United States of America" an opportunity to finally get the life issue right. Perhaps Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975), said it best. "Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision [ Roe v. Wade ] that denied the value of certain human lives. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our Black brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God. From their example, we know that respect for the sacred value of human life is too deeply engrained in the hearts of our people to remain forever suppressed." ⁸

The California Human Rights Amendment is the final chapter of the Civil Rights movement. Let's work together and finish the job.

Brothers, we really need to talk.