No more corporate personhood in LA, Unanimous

Standing room only, unanimous vote against 'corporate personhood': Money is not free speech

Thanks to ground work by the U.S. Green Party, the wave of Occupy Wall Street empowerment and Human Rights Alert, today, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to vote against corporate personhood and call for a Constitutional Amendment asserting corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not free speech. The vote was unanimous.

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The unanimous vote was witnessed in Council chambers packed by a standing room only crowd of hundreds of people as well as an overflow room filled to capacity by enthusiastic supporters.

The resolution was sponsored by City Council President Eric Garcetti and seconded by Council Members Bill Rosendahl and Paul Krekorian with passionate support by Council Members Richard Alarcon, and Paul Koretz.

The action is in response to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that supposedly gave corporations the same First Amendment protections as people and allowed them to spend unlimited funds on campaign finance.

Mary Beth Fielder, Move To Amend - LA founder, who spearheaded bringing the resolution to the LA City Council said, "It's a great day for Los Angeles and it's a great day for the United States of America."

"I hope this is the vote heard around the world and that it will inspire other who want to reclaim our democracy to begin organizing in their communities. Together we can build the grassroots support we need to actually amend our constitution."

Information about the amendment can be read at http://movetoamend.org/amendment

"Every struggle to amend the constitution began as just a group of regular Americans who wanted to end slavery, who thought women should vote, who believed that if you're old enough to be drafted, you should be old enough to vote," said Council President Eric Garcetti.

"These are how American amendments move forward from the grassroots when Americans say enough is enough. We're very proud to come together and send a message but more than that, this becomes the official position of the City of Los Angeles, we will officially lobby for this. I also chair a group which oversees all the Democratic mayors and council members in the country and we're going to share this with all our 3,000 members and we hope to see this start here in the west and sweep the nation until one day we do have a constitutional amendment which will return the power to the people."

"What we saw in that chamber today was the beginning of a sea change in the way people think about politics in America and I hope that this will be the first day of a long and sustained movement that changes the way we represent ourselves and the way we demand the kind of government that we deserve," said Council Member Paul Krekorian.

"I could not believe the coalition of energy that filled the council chambers today," said Council Member Bill Rosendahl. "It made a huge difference. It was democracy at its best."

In May, Dr. Joseph Zernik, director of Human Rights Alert, took the case of corporate personhood head on and proved it to be a bogus ruling from its start.

In a Breaking News article in May, "Corporations have no First Amend. Rights. Ruling invalid," Deborah Dupré reported that Human Rights Alert challenged that corporations have First Amendment Rights, as ruled by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the rights group had proven the "corporate personhood" to be a bogus court ruling according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response that the human rights project received.

The response evidenced that the FEC produced invalid records about the case including no NEF on the ruling documentation, as reported by Dupré who furthered:

"The response evidences that the FEC produced invalid records about the case including noNEF on the ruling documentation.

"Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (FEC) (08-205), a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court, was reported to have accorded corporations First Amendment rights."

The ruling was a 'decision holding that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts of money in election campaigns… a stunning example of judicial activism,” Dr. Zernik had said.

In Breaking News in May, Dupré reported that Dr. Zernik evidenced the Corporation Corporate Rights ruling "cannot possibly be a valid court record."

Dr. Zernik listed the following four reasons for the impossibility:

It is a record dated January 21, 2010, whereas the online docket noted the issuance of a Judgment on February 22, 2010.
It is an unsigned record, which bears a stamp certifying that it is a “true copy” of an unsigned original record.
The stamp is signed, but not dated. Moreover, the name and authority of the person who signed the stamp (Cynthia Rapp) were not printed below the signature line. Therefore, the signature on the stamp, certifying “true copy” is of dubious validity as well.
It has no true and valid attestation/authentication by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States. Contrary to what was stated in the FOIA response letter [i], the record provided did not include true and valid attestation/authentication by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States."

“Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” stated Fielder.

“The American people are behind us on this and these campaigns help our federal representatives see that we mean business. Our very democracy is at stake.

"Our goal is for 50 towns and cities to put Move to Amend’s resolution on the ballot for the Presidential election in November, 2012.”