Today’s press conference on campaign contribution, corporate personhood amendment postponed

A press conference originally scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 25, on corporate personhood and the money spent on campaign contributions has been rescheduled until further notice.

The conference was to be held in Press Room of the Legislative Building on W. Jones Street in Raleigh. The 28th Amendment to the Constitution would reverse the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.

More from Move to Amend:

North Carolina Legislators to Introduce Statewide Resolution to NC General Assembly Calling on Congress to Pass a 28th Amendment to US Constitution.

A consensus resolution (attached) developed by all the local North Carolina affiliates of the national Move to Amend organization will be introduced this session by NC state legislators.

The resolution calls on the US Congress to pass the 28th Amendment to the Constitution that reverses the US Supreme Court’s 2010 decision on Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission. The Amendment abolishes corporate personhood and reverses the decision that defines money spent on political campaign contributions as a form of free speech that cannot be regulated by government.

NC Representatives Verla Insko and Pricey Harrison will be among the primary sponsors of the statewide resolution in the House. Senator Terry Van Duyn will be among the primary sponsors in the Senate. It is expected that many more legislators will sign on as primary and co-sponsors in both the House and Senate prior to the bill’s introduction.

Fifteen states have already passed and sent similar resolutions to Congress, including Montana, Delaware, Vermont, Illinois, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.

In addition, nation-wide more than 500 municipalities have passed MTA resolutions and there have been hundreds of citizen ballot initiatives that have all passed, overwhelmingly, without exception. For a complete listing of these visit https://movetoamend.org/resolutions-map

In North Carolina, in January, the Jackson County Commission became the 14th local government to pass a similar resolution following Orange County, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Greenville, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Franklin, Highlands, Bryson City, Webster, and Forest Hills.

“The public outcry on this issue is a result of the acceleration of corporate spending on political campaigns in recent elections, perceived as a manipulation of the electoral process that negates the principle of one-person-one-vote,” says Avram Friedman of MTA WNC. “The Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations the right to influence elections with money stems from the legal recognition of corporations as people. Historically, for legalistic and contract purposes corporations have sometimes metaphorically been labelled as ‘people,’ to assign responsibility. But, with the Citizens United and prior decisions, the court has confused metaphor with reality granting corporate “rights” equal to the rights of real people, although these artificial legal entities have no birth certificates, no drivers licenses, no physical bodies, cannot be married or have children, may reside in more than one country simultaneously and can exist for centuries. Many corporations have vast financial resources far exceeding those of real people and are therefore able to essentially buy the results of an election through the purchase of an endless stream of television, radio and newspaper advertising.”

For more information contact:
Avram Friedman, Move to Amend Far- Western NC – Sylva, 828-269-2158, avram@canarycoalition.org
Tom Coulson, Move to Amend Buncombe County (MABCO), 828-674-3046, tomcoulson@aol.com
Vicki B. Rowan, Charlotte Area Move to Amend (CAMTA), 704-525-4110, vbrowan@bellsouth.net