Ft. Bragg, CA, declines corporate personhood

Here's the resolution that Alliance for Democracy members from the Mendocino County (CA) chapter submitted to the Fort Bragg City Council on January 24:

 

WHEREAS, the 1885 US Supreme Court erroneously gave corporations the rights of persons under the 14th Amendment, and;

 

WHEREAS, over the succeeding 125 years, corporate-friendly Supreme Court decisions have expanded these so-called “corporate personhood rights” to overturn municipal, state and federal laws enacted to curb corporate abuses; thereby rendering local governments ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harms to the environment, to health, to workers, to independent business, to local and regional economies, and;

 

WHEREAS, giant corporations have also used these corporate personhood rights to spend billions of dollars to influence government through lobbying, campaign contributions, ownership of the mass media, and massive advertising and public relations efforts, and;

 

WHEREAS, this massive corporate political impact has overwhelmed the voice of common citizens, crippled municipalities' ability to benefit local residents, and undermined people's faith in democracy, and;

 

WHEREAS, the current US Supreme Court is on a path of to eliminate any restrictions on corporate campaign contributions, and;

 

WHEREAS, municipalities and citizens across the nation are joining with the Campaign to Legalize Democracy to call for an Amendment to the US Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood;

 

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the City of Fort Bragg, California, hereby calls on our legislators to call for an Amendment to the US Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood and return our democracy, our elections, and our communities back to America’s human persons and to thus reclaim our sovereign right to self-governance."