Club member, Ray Sortuno wants the Club to take a formal position against Citizen’s United, which is a Supreme Court case that essentitally grants coporations 1st amendent rights as their granted to individuals.
He would like the Club to consider endorsing the following language to use in letters to our representatives:
We the people, not we the corporations.
We, the El Cerrito Democratic Club, reject the Supreme Court’s ruling in “Citizens United” and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy the people rule.
We move to amend,
“…corporations have no conscience, no feelings, no beliefs, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal function. But they are not themselves members of “We the people” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010.
Club members present at the April 22 meeting can make amendments to this language and/or vote to endorse it.