8754-14 Support constitutional amendment

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WHEREAS, corporations are not and have never been human beings, and therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and governments as our legal creations; and WHEREAS, the recent Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision that rolled back the legal limits on spending in the electoral process creates an unequal playing field and allows unlimited spending by wealthy individuals, corporations and other entities to influence elections, candidate selection, policy decisions and sway votes, and compels elected officials to divert their attention from The People's business, or even vote against the interest of their human constituents, in order to ensure competitive campaign finds for their own re- election; and WHEREAS, the judicial interpretation to construe spending money in political cam- paigns as speech is contrary of the notion of one person, one vote, and allows those with the most money to have an unfair advantage in a political system that should be about ensuring that all citizens have equal access to the political process and to influencing the outcome of elections; and WHEREAS, money is property, not speech; and WHEREAS, large corporations own most of America's mass media and use that media as a megaphone to express loudly their political agenda and to convince Americans that their prima- ry role is that of consumers, rather than sovereign citizens with rights and responsibilities within our democracy; and WHEREAS, tens of thousands of people and municipalities across the nation are joining with the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as speech; and BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF LAKEWOOD, OHIO: Section 1. The City of Lakewood hereby calls on our legislators at the state and federal levels to join the tens of thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations and local governments across the country in the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to the U.S. Consti- tution to (a) abolish corporate personhood and (b) abolish the doctrine of money as speech and thereby return our democracy, our elections, and our communities to America's human persons and thus claim our sovereign right to self - governance. Section 2. The City of Lakewood calls on other communities and jurisdictions to join with as in this action by passing similar resolutions. Section 3. The City of Lakewood supports education to increase public awareness of the threats to our democracy posed by corporate personhood, and encourages lively discussion to build understanding and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal actions to democratically respond to these threats.