LA City Council Agrees With OWS: Corporations Are Not People

Yesterday marked a huge moral victory for the 99%: The city councils of Los Angeles, California, and Albany, New York, both voted to support constitutional amendments that would undo the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. Votes in both cities were unanimous.

In early 2010, five conservative Supreme Court Justices banned together to overturn a 60 year-old on corporate money in federal elections. The Citizens United decision effectively stated that corporations were entitled to the same rights and privileges as people, which meant corporations’ political contributions are a form of free speech.

Since then, Citizens United has allowed unlimited amounts of corporate money to flood the political system, driving yet another wedge between politicians and the people they are meant to serve.

“Every American should have an equal voice in their government,” said Council President Eric Garcetti, who co-sponsored the resolution with Councilman Bill Rosendahl. “But unless there are big changes, your voice is only as loud as your bank account. And its the big corporations that have the largest bank accounts of all.”

“The flood of corporate money since Citizens United is literally drowning our Democracy. It’s drowning the people’s voice in the government,” Garcetti added.

In Los Angeles, the site of so much government violence against Occupy Wall Street protesters, the vote took place before a packed Council chambers. When the unanimous vote was announced, Occupy L.A. members and other activists gave it a standing ovation.

Patch.com reports that “if supported by the mayor, the city would be on record in support of federal legislation that would ensure corporations are not entitled to the same rights as people, especially when it comes to spending money to influence elections. It also proposed language for a constitutional amendment declaring that money is not a form of speech and affirming the right of the federal government to regulate corporations.”

Related Reading:

Citizens United One Year Later

We The People Campaign Takes On Citizens United

Vermont Considers Ending Corporate Personhood

Image Credit: Flickr – uvw916a

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Quanta K.

5:07AM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Thanks.

send a green star

Simon H.

4:57AM PST on Jan 20, 2012

When I voted in the Quick Poll "Should the Constitution be amended to reverse Citizens United?"...

98% Yes, 1% Undecided, 1% No. Interesting statistics!

Dan B.

12:43PM PST on Jan 3, 2012

OCCUPY 2012!

Judy G.

8:02PM PST on Dec 17, 2011

Sometimes, the world seems so brutal and horrible its nice to know there are many people
out there who are good people with morals and values and hearts. Thanks for being out there

Bonnie B.

11:32PM PST on Dec 10, 2011

Great news! If nothing else it will give an undeniable message to Congress and the Supremes that this is the will of the REAL people of the US. It is effective to work locally! I hope this spreads like wildfire! Go OWS, the 99% and Bernie Saunders!

Pam A.

5:25PM PST on Dec 9, 2011

It's great getting support from the local governments - this reflects a changing tide.

Danuta W.

12:19AM PST on Dec 9, 2011

Thanks for sharing.

John R.

6:02PM PST on Dec 8, 2011

5 stars to Albany city council!

6:01PM PST on Dec 8, 2011

5 stars to LA city council

Frances C.

3:18PM PST on Dec 8, 2011

The large corporations and the right wing supreme court (2 peas in a pod) are making me very nervous. They are downright scary. Never in my wildest nightmares did I think that a court would take away individual voting rights, and make corporations people. The only reason to do that is giving power to the rich and powerful. When we finally become like Mexico and the oil rich countries, the very rich (1%) and the poor (99%) which we are very close to becoming, then the far right will be happy. Well not completely happy. They will still work to take away women's and gay rights and have a religious test to run for President. Then maybe they will be really happy. Or maybe they will still have to make the poor children work in the coal mines, be janitors after they fire the "Union" janitors, and why improve their schools..why would poor kids need schools when they can get a job?

We must do everything we can to stop this outrage.