May, 10 2011, 12:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
People For the American Way: Justin Greenberg, media@pfaw.org, (202) 467-4999
Public Citizen: Dorry Samuels, dsamuels@citizen.org
Free Speech For People: Jeff Clements, jclements@freespeechforpeople.org, (978) 287-4901
Center for Media and Democracy: Nikolina Lazic, nikolina@prwatch.org, (608) 260-9713
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From Taxing Railroads to Buying Elections
Today marks the 125th anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, a landmark case which was interpreted to confer "personhood" on corporations, thus extending the right to equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which was previously afforded only to individuals.
WASHINGTON
Today marks the 125th anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, a landmark case which was interpreted to confer "personhood" on corporations, thus extending the right to equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which was previously afforded only to individuals. Throughout the next century, the rights of corporations have significantly expanded, and now, thanks to Citizen's United, include the ability to make almost unlimited political contributions as an expression of free speech.
"In the last 125 years, the concept of corporate personhood has reached ridiculous extremes," said Marge Baker, executive vice president at People For the American Way. "Increasingly our laws and our Constitution are being bent to favor the interests of powerful corporations instead of the rights of ordinary Americans. The Supreme Court's shocking decision in Citizens United put a 'for sale' sign on our democracy, allowing unlimited funds to be spent from corporate treasuries to influence our elections, and the American people are paying the price."
"The Constitution should serve to advance the interests of We, the People, not giant corporations," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Santa ClaraCountyv. Southern Pacific Railroad Company has come to stand for the proposition that corporations are presumptively entitled to the same constitutional rights as humans. The doctrine has corroded our democracy, most stunningly in the 2010 decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend whatever they like to influence election outcomes. Rescuing our constitutional democracy requires reestablishing the principle that corporations are the creations--and subordinates--of We, the People."
"Citizens United is the Santa Clara of our time," said Jeff Clements, general counsel for Free Speech For People. "Past generations of Americans came together across party and ideological divides to take on corporate power to amend the Constitution to reverse corporate-dominated Supreme Court decisions: to end corporate corruption of the appointment of U.S. Senators and to require direct election to the Senate, and to overturn a corporate Supreme Court that said Americans cannot have a progressive income tax. To take on today's threats on our republican democracy, we must come together again to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United and to protect people's rights, not corporate rights."
"The current U.S. Supreme Court arrogantly dictated that corporations have a constitutional 'right' to spend unlimited money influencing our elections, basing this edict on a deeply flawed decision from over a century ago," said Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. "In the 1886 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company case, a group of activist judges granted rights to for-profit corporations that were put into the Constitution after the Civil War to protect newly freed slaves, not railroads and robber barons. The five politicians in judicial robes given lifetime jobs on our highest court by Presidents George W. Bush, his dad, and Reagan have now given the richest corporations in the world fundamental First Amendment rights that were supposed to protect the human rights of citizens in our democracy. Their dictate will be over-ruled."
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Senators Sound Alarm on Push to 'Undermine the Goals of Dodd-Frank'
"We urge the commission to continue to focus on its vital work preserving market integrity and protecting the public, uphold the letter and spirit of the Dodd-Frank Act, and withdraw the proposed rule."
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A trio of Democratic U.S. senators on Monday wrote to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam expressing their "serious reservations" with the agency's proposed rule on seeded funds and money market funds, a policy the lawmakers warned would "undermine the goals of Dodd-Frank" by rolling back the already weakened financial oversight law.
Passed in the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—which was partially rolled back during the Trump administration—overhauled federal financial regulation. In a letter to Behnam, Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Tina Smith (Minn.) assert that the CFTC's proposed rule is a "step in the wrong direction" that would increase market instability by decreasing collateral requirements for certain transactions.
The Global Markets Advisory Committee, largely made up of finance industry insiders, recommended the proposed rule in 2020 during the Trump administration.
As the letter explains:
The proposed rule would reduce or eliminate initial margin requirements for up to three years for a subset of swap market participants. "Initial margin" is the collateral that participants must set aside when entering swap agreements. Initial margin requirements, along with "variation margin" and other capital requirements, protect counterparties to a swap in the event of a default. Dodd-Frank set up comprehensive rules for swap agreements after they significantly contributed to the 2008 financial crisis and the federal government was forced to bail out Wall Street.
"The 2008 financial crisis showed the dangers that swaps can pose to economic stability, and Dodd-Frank directed regulators, including the CFTC, to require initial margin for uncleared swaps specifically to reduce those risks," the senators wrote. "It is vital for the CFTC to continue upholding its Dodd-Frank mandate and to maintain high standards and safeguards for this important market."
"We urge the commission to continue to focus on its vital work preserving market integrity and protecting the public, uphold the letter and spirit of the Dodd-Frank Act, and withdraw the proposed rule," the lawmakers added.
The collapse earlier this year of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank—both of which benefited from regulatory relief thanks to the 2018 rollback—brought renewed scrutiny on Dodd-Frank's Republican-engineered shortcomings. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who wrote the 2018 banking deregulation law, insisted in March that "there is no need for regulatory reform" in the wake of the banks' failures.
Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, responded to Crapo's assertion by writing that "you have to be hard-core committed to mindless free-market fundamentalism—or truly in thrall to your donors—to insist there's no need for new regulations after Silicon Valley Bank."
Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also wrote a letter to Behman sharing her concerns about the proposed rule. Noting the policy's 2020 introduction, Warren said in her October 10 letter that "it is unclear why the commission is choosing to propose these rules now, three years later, without conducting its own additional analyses of whether the changes are necessary or will strengthen the stability of the domestic financial system."
"I strongly urge the commission not to loosen the existing rules and not to roll back important Dodd-Frank Act reforms," Warren added.
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UN Chief Calls Antarctica 'Sleeping Giant... Being Awoken by Climate Chaos'
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday issued yet another impassioned call for ambitious climate action after a trip to Antarctica and amid preparations for the U.N. Climate Change Conference later this week.
"I have just returned from Antarctica—the sleeping giant. A giant being awoken by climate chaos. Together, Antarctica and Greenland are melting well over three times faster than they were in the early 1990s," he told reporters in New York City.
"It is profoundly shocking to stand on the ice of Antarctica and hear directly from scientists how fast the ice is disappearing," the U.N. leader said of his trip to the continent last week, pointing out that "this year, Antarctic sea ice hit an all-time low."
"Leaders must not let the hopes of people around the world for a sustainable planet melt away."
Scientists project that 2023 will be the hottest year in 125,000 years. Recent research has also shown that Antarctica is warming faster than widely cited models predicted, and even if humanity significantly cuts planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet faces an "unavoidable" increase in melting this century.
Guterres stressed Monday that "what happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. We live in an interconnected world. Melting sea ice means rising seas. And that directly endangers lives and livelihoods in coastal communities across the globe. Floods and saltwater intrusion imperil crops and drinking water—threatening food and water security."
"The movement of waters around Antarctica distributes heat, nutrients, and carbon around the world, helping to regulate our climate and regional weather patterns," he explained. "But that system is slowing as the Southern Ocean grows warmer and less dense. Further slowdown—or entire breakdown—would spell catastrophe."
"The cause of all this destruction is clear: the fossil fuel pollution coating the Earth and heating the planet," he stressed. "Without changing course, we're heading towards a calamitous 3°C temperature rise by the end of the century."
That's according to a U.N. analysis of currently implemented policies, released last week ahead of the COP28 summit—which will be hosted in the United Arab Emirates by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO Sultan Al Jaber, who has allegedly used meetings about the upcoming climate talks to push for fossil fuel deals with other governments.
"If we continue as we are, and I strongly hope we will not, the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets will cross a deadly tipping point. This alone would ultimately push up sea levels by around 10 meters. We are trapped in a deadly cycle," Guterres declared Monday. "At COP28, which starts later this week, leaders must break this cycle."
"Leaders must act to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, protect people from climate chaos, and end the fossil fuel age," the U.N. chief said, referencing a key goal of the 2015 Paris agreement. He called for tripling renewables, doubling energy efficiency, bringing clean power to all, a "clear and credible commitment" to phasing out fossil fuels, and "climate justice."
"Antarctica is crying out for action," Guterres said. "Leaders must not let the hopes of people around the world for a sustainable planet melt away. They must make COP28 count."
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109 Aussie Kayaktivists Charged for Blocking World's Largest Coal Port
"World leaders attending COP28 this week should take note that the mass protest in New South Wales is not an isolated incident but part of a global pushback for change now," said one campaigner.
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More than 100 climate defenders were charged Monday in New South Wales, Australia after using kayaks or swimming to blockade the coal port at Newcastle—the world's largest—to demand an end to fossil fuels as petrostate United Arab Emirates prepares to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference later this week.
New South Wales police said 109 people were arrested after paddling kayaks or swimming into the shipping lane servicing coal cargo at the Port of Newcastle during a 30-hour protest on Saturday and Sunday. The arrested activists were all charged with operating a vessel so as to interfere with others' use of waters.
The climate action group Rising Tide Australia, which led the action, said it would keep holding protests until federal and state governments take meaningful climate action.
"That's the choice we are giving government, either do your job and take on the industry that's causing the crisis, or people will continue to put themselves in situations like this," Rising Tide spokesperson Zack Schofield toldABC Newcastle.
Among those arrested was 97-year-old church minister Alan Stuart, who toldSBS News that he engaged in civil disobedience "for my grandchildren and for future generations because I don't want to leave them with a world full of increasingly severe, frequent national disasters because of climate change."
Anjali Beames, an activist with the School Strike for Climate movement started in Sweden by Greta Thunberg, was also arrested.
"My future is getting sold by the fossil fuel industry for profit, and I'm not going to sit idly by while that happens, it's the Australian government's failure to act," Beames told SBS News.
"We know that the climate crisis is here and now, and if there's any hope of mitigating the consequences and saving people's lives, we have to stop new fossil fuel projects, and that includes new coal," she added.
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) said several of the group's legal observers were arrested and charged along with the protesters. The group said its personnel "were easily identifiable by wearing pink high-visibility jackets with 'Legal Observers' written across the vest in large black letters."
NSWCCL president Lydia Shelly said that "the charges against the legal observers should be immediately withdrawn."
"It is not in the public interest for these charges to proceed," Shelly added. "If the charges are not withdrawn, it risks sending a dangerous message to the public that NSW police do not want their interactions or conduct with peaceful protestors monitored by independent organizations."
Referring to the U.N. Climate Change Conference slated to start Thursday in Dubai, Amnesty International Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze said in a statement Monday that "while it is deeply discouraging to see this kind of outcome after peaceful protests on the climate crisis days before COP28, it is also hugely inspiring to see the creativity, ingenuity, and solidarity of the protesters who took to kayaks to oppose climate inaction."
"World leaders attending COP28 this week should take note that the mass protest in New South Wales is not an isolated incident but part of a global pushback for change now," Schuetze continued. "People will not stay silent when climate upheaval threatens their futures."
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns of the center-left Labor Party dismissed the protesters' climate concerns, noting on Monday that "not only is the extraction and sale and export of minerals in NSW legal, it's our single biggest export."
"If we don't take some of the royalties from coal export, we will not meet our renewable energy targets in NSW," Minns added. "We won't even come close."
Alexa Stuart, an organizer of the protest and Alan Stuart's granddaughter, told SBS News that the Australian government's climate inaction forced climate campaigners' hands.
"We wish we did not have to do this but the Albanese government needs to understand we are serious," she said, referring to Labor Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a supporter of Australia's nearly U.S. $40 billion coal industry.
"If Australia today said we are not going to export any more coal, [it] wouldn't lead to a reduction in global emissions," Albanese said last year, rejecting Australian Greens' calls for a fossil fuel export moratorium. "What you would see is a replacement with coal from other countries that's likely to produce higher emissions… because of the quality of the product."
Still, Australian Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen claims the government's COP28 delegation will bring to Dubai evidence proving the country is on track to meet its target of a 43% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
Kelly O'Shanassy, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, toldThe Guardian on Saturday that "the Albanese government is taking genuine steps to reduce carbon emissions at home, while enabling the increased and indefinite export of coal and gas to other countries."
"It doesn't matter where the coal and gas is burnt," O'Shanassy added. "Australian fossil fuels are supercharging climate damage, fueling heatwaves, bushfires, and coral bleaching."
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