{"id":21979,"date":"2010-01-31T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=21979"},"modified":"2011-09-24T16:12:15","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:12:15","slug":"taking-action-against-scotus-ruling-corporations-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/taking-action-against-scotus-ruling-corporations-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Activism: The Promise of the First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle<\/strong> | Political Waves (the Planet Waves politics blog)<\/p>\n

So what happens when our High Court gives us a ruling so heinous to the democratic process and protection of the individual that the President takes opportunity during his State of the Union to chide the Supremes<\/a> and directs his Congress to investigate and close the loopholes?<\/p>\n

First we employ a little humor, to inform of the actual damage done and reflect its implications, as found over at Scholars and Rogues:<\/p>\n

Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corporate funding of federal campaigns, Murray Hill Inc. today announced it is filing to run for U.S. Congress. \u201cUntil now,\u201d Murray Hill Inc. said in a statement, \u201ccorporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence-peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.\u201d Murray Hill Inc. is believed to be the first \u201ccorporate person\u201d to exercise its constitutional right to run for office.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of America,\u201d Murray Hill Inc. said, \u201cis in the boardrooms, country clubs and Lear jets of America\u2019s great corporations. We\u2019re saying to Wal-Mart, AIG and Pfizer, if not you, who? If not now, when?\u201d Murray Hill Inc. added: \u201cIt\u2019s our democracy. We bought it, we paid for it, and we\u2019re going to keep it.\u201d Murray Hill Inc., a diversifying corporation in the Washington, D.C. area, has long held an interest in politics and sees corporate candidacy as an \u201cemerging new market.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The announcement represents a landmark moment in American politics, as former President George W. Bush\u2019s dream of an \u201cownership society\u201d is finally realized.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then we begin to organize around the actions necessary to limit the fallout. There must be\u00a0potent campaign finance reform in the near future if we’re to stop corporations from a full court press. Companies must be forced to get shareholder approval for political activities and should be prohibited from making any contributions if they receive government funding or contracts.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, once the Supremes put their stamp on such as this, the only recourse is an amendment to the Constitution. That’s akin to moving heaven and earth, but because everything we do moves the ball forward, it’s a necessity to go on record with our protest. If you wish, you can add your name to Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen petition.<\/a> Credo has a petition<\/a> supporting several of Rep. Alan Grayson’s proposals as part of a “Save Our Democracy” initiative.<\/p>\n

Oh, I know — we’ve signed hundreds of similar demands and gotten nowhere over the years — but this is the worst possible moment to throw in the towel. The nation is aware of a growing populism that is a result of frustration and anger\u00a0at the slowness of change. We are suddenly aware that Big Money doesn’t just complicate the problem, it IS the problem. We must continue to have the backs of those few\u00a0who are stepping up, promising them our votes and support. The worst thing we can offer them is apathy.\u00a0Remember Edmund Burke’s warning: “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”<\/p>\n

Back in 1857, a slave, living in a free state, sued for his freedom. The High Court brought in the decision that has been infamously known as Dred Scott, indicating that no black man was equal to a white one and was therefore unfit for citizenship, hence the right to legal recourse.<\/p>\n

Citizenship is another name for individual, state-approved rights. Rather than settling the contentious question of citizenship for those of African ancestry, Dred Scott resulted in the Civil War. The bust of the Chief Justice handing down that ruling was removed from the gallery containing a historical remembrance of his contemporaries and he died, still in office, discredited. His name was Roger B. Taney.<\/p>\n

The High Court of the United States has given the citizenship Scott was denied to for-profit corporate entities; faceless, nameless business collectives. Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy. John Roberts. Remember the names. History will.<\/p>\n

Jude<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves (the Planet Waves politics blog) So what happens when our High Court gives us a ruling so heinous to the democratic process and protection of the individual that the President takes opportunity during his State of the Union to chide the Supremes and directs his Congress to investigate and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[29,1642,52,881,1360,615],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}