August, 17 2011, 07:07am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, kaitlin@MoveToAmend.org, (707) 362-0626 (NATIONAL)
Carolyn Bninksi, carolynbn@earthlink.net, (720) 509-3378 (BOULDER)
Boulder City Council Approves Anti-Corporate Personhood Referendum for November Ballot
Just days after Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney angered attendees at the Iowa State Fair by declaring that "corporations are people," the court-created doctrine of "corporate personhood" is once again making headlines.
BOULDER, Colo.
Just days after Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney angered attendees at the Iowa State Fair by declaring that "corporations are people," the court-created doctrine of "corporate personhood" is once again making headlines.
On Tuesday evening the City Council of Boulder, Colorado voted to place a referendum on the November ballot calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Boulder's decision came after months of grassroots organizing by Move to Amend, a national coalition working to abolish corporate personhood.
"This is a very important development at exactly the right time," said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a national spokesperson for Move to Amend. "Americans are fed up with corporate dominance of our political system. The people of Boulder have an opportunity to lead the way for other communities throughout the country by taking a strong stand."
Boulder's decision comes just months after voters in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin overwhelmingly approved measures calling for an end to corporate personhood and the legal status of money as speech by 84% and 78% respectively.
"Wow. What an outpouring of emotion and feeling and sincere interest in making changes, which I don't think anybody in the room would deny we need at the highest level," Councilman Ken Wilson told the crowd before he voted in favor of putting the referendum on the ballot. "My family and I were very, very disappointed in the Citizens United decision. I think it's a real threat to our government, and whatever we can do to change that, I think we should."
Similar resolutions have been passed in nearly thirty other cities and counties. Resolutions have also been introduced in the state legislatures of Vermont, Washington, Montana, and New Mexico. The City Council of Missoula, Montana will be considering placing such a measure on the ballot next week.
"We are excited to be a part of this rapidly growing national effort," said Carolyn Bninksi, a local organizer with Boulder Move to Amend. "The strength of Move to Amend's strategy is that it is based on grassroots work at the local level. This is the only way to build a movement powerful enough to take on entrenched corporate interests."
For more information visit https://www.MoveToAmend.org.
MovetoAmend.org is a coalition supported by hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of individuals dedicated to ending the illegitimate legal doctrines that prevent the American people from governing ourselves.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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