Pensacola’s Coffee Party will host a meeting Wednesday evening, to form local coalitions within the national “Move to Amend” campaign.
On a 5-4 vote, the Citizens United ruling in January 2010 gave corporations and unions the green light to spend unlimited sums on ads and other political tools. In effect, the court said in that regard, corporations had the same 1st amendment rights as individual persons.
“Move to Amend” seeks to wipe out the Citizens United decision through a 28th amendment to the U-S Constitution. Mike Potters of the Pensacola-area Coffee Party is helping organize a local MTA chapter. Their proposed 28th amendment would do what he calls two very simple things.
“It would change federal law by declaring, in the Constitution, that a corporation is not a person, and that money is not speech,” said Potters.
Passage of the amendment, he says, would enable other actions that have been paralyzed by the Citizens United decision by freeing up options for regulating the role campaign finances have in determining the outcome of an election.
Article-5 of the Constitution spells out amendment ratification. One may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate -- or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures – 34 states. However, none of the 17 amendments after the Bill of Rights came from a constitutional convention.
If originating in Congress, the proposal must then be ratified by three-fourths of the States – that’s 38 of the 50. Potters says besides educating residents, they also want to petition local governments to pass resolutions aimed at getting the attention of state lawmakers. One of their weapons is a half-hour documentary titled “Legalize Democracy.”
The Coffee Party’s Mike Potters says this is strictly an effort towards removing the Citizens United decision. No candidates or other causes will be endorsed.
The meeting is open to the public and kicks off at 6:30 p-m Wednesday evening at the Tryon Public Library on Langley Avenue.