Citizens United Constitutional Amendment Backed By Vermont Legislature

Citizens in Montpelier, Vt., rally in January in support of a resolution to reverse the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.

WASHINGTON -- Vermont has become the third U.S. state to pass a resolution calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to get money out of politics and reverse the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that allows unlimited corporate money in politics.

The resolution passed the Vermont House 92-40 on Thursday, one week after the state Senate approved it 26-3.

Aquene Freechild, the senior organizer in Vermont for Public Citizen's Democracy Is For People campaign, called the passage of the resolution "absolutely amazing."

The resolution came after months of campaigning by local activists to win support in towns throughout the state. On Tuesday, a leading activist in the effort, Georgina Forbes of Norwich, Vt., was at the Capitol in Washington for an event promoting grassroots state efforts for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Activists involved with Vermonters Say Corporations Are Not People got at least 65 towns to pass statements supporting a state resolution.

"People were going to the post office, to their town dump, their grocery store, and talking to their neighbors," Freechild said. "People are just disgusted by the amount of money in politics."

Vermont's legislature joins those in Hawaii and New Mexico as the only three to approve resolutions calling on Congress to pass an anti-Citizens United amendment to the Constitution. The resolutions show grassroots support for the issue and indicate that the states will ratify an amendment if Congress passes one.

Resolutions have been introduced in 20 other states and have been approved in at least one legislative chamber in Alaska, California and Iowa.

Comments

[Jimserac]

06:33 AM on 04/22/2012

That's three states now whose citizens have come to their senses that an artificially created legal entity does NOT have citizenship status, is NOT a person OR PEOPLE and will NOT be used by 1%ers as another loophole in the their end run around the Bill of Rights and the constitution of the United States.

Contrary to the self delusion of one "Mitt" Romney, the United States of America is NOT a corporation and its citizens are NOT his potential employees. Mr. Romney will be disabused of this delusion come November when the REAL CITIZENS of the United States, who happen to be HUMAN BEINGS, will vote to DENY Mr. Romney and his ilk their application to "take over" the "sick" "corporation" (sic), as they view the United States, in order to do a "turn around". Their only "business" is giving us "the business" !!

In the aftermath of what is to be their greatest defeat in history, it is to be hoped that the Republican party will come to its senses, relegate tea party loons to their former status one step below sidewalk soapbox orators, regain their senses in foreign policy, show some respect for labor laws that people DIED to get passed and return to being a productive and intellectually sound party.

Mr. Romney? He can go to South America and buy some other country. OURS IS NOT FOR SALE.

[Spiral Architect]

02:47 PM on 05/16/2012

Actually, the law has always treated corporations as legal persons. Nothing new here. They are entities that are owned and operated by persons, just like partnerships or sole proprietorships. So they have the rights of the people whose interests they represent.

What is ironic is that so many liberals that cry foul about corporations involved in politics have no qualms about unions involved in politics. Unions purported represent employees (although in a closed shop, many of those union employees are represented against their will) and regularly contribute to political causes.

The personhood of corporations is a red herring. This complaint boils down to whether conservative entities should be shut out of politics while liberal entities should be given free reign

And, BTW, there will be no great defeat of either party in 2012, just a close election in which Romney wins

[left in vermont]

10:51 PM on 04/20/2012

Thems my peeps.

[songone]

08:11 PM on 04/20/2012

Bravo Vermont !!!! You Go Mr. Sanders !!

[dudekabob]

12:45 PM on 04/20/2012

What an amazing video! Referring to the amount of money being spent on "...Republicans going against Republicans. ..if you think that's bad, wait 'til they go against the black guy!"

I think this is called "casual racism" and it's alive and well in America, even in Vermont. What a mess we've become! Or were we ever really any better than this? Sometimes I wonder.

[toddnjean]

12:39 PM on 04/20/2012

I wish Washington State would get onboard with this.

[IBelieveNus]

12:27 PM on 04/20/2012

So what is the rest of the country waiting for? This is the reason for all the corruption in American Politics. Lobbyist's run our bodies of government.

[efmo]

12:18 PM on 04/20/2012

This is great. It would be good also if, somehow, the previous rulings by the Supreme Court that money equals speech could be reversed or negated by inclusion in an amendment.

[robertdmorris3]

12:11 PM on 04/20/2012

Well done Vermont! The billionare, corporate backed GOP needs to understand that congressional seats, the office of president, or in fact any government office is not for sale and will be returned to where the constitution clearly states they belong. And that's with the American people. Voters don't be fooled by the Tea Party or the GOP who cry out freedom and hide behind their own interpetation of the constitution. I cringe every time I hear an add for a so called constitutional based conservative knowing that title could be nothing farther from the truth. No freedom there. The constitution means all of us. Never a certain few. Voters stand up, and if you haven't done so pressure your state legislature to do as Vermont has done. Untill this is done you will never be truly free. My hat is off to you, the people of Vermont.

[nam vet]

11:21 AM on 04/20/2012

oh

[way2old]

11:10 AM on 04/20/2012

Time for a,........... National Referendum.

Hummmmmmmmmmm..........wouldn't this approach solve many of the federal legislative issue we have today???

[left in vermont]

10:49 PM on 04/20/2012

No, because if the way referendums are manipulated by the corporate interests that lobby for or against them. If you want to see how these things work, look at the ungovernable mess California is. I know, I lived there for six years.
I'll keep voting for my reps, and they'll get the job done, at least here on the local level.

[way2old]

11:55 PM on 04/20/2012

I have to disagree........big corporations, Wall Street, massive banks via PACs own our government and most legislators. The reason ......there are so few in Congress.....PACs can buy and own them.

Now........National Referendums would involve citizens across America voting. Sure PACs can buy national ads like in the presidential compaign........but having to do this with each major item of legislation that would face a National Referendum year after year, decade after decade......would in this case be simply too much money.

National Referendums would simply be like Vermont Town Hall meetings except on a much larger scale.........direct vote if you will........and this would take back our government.

[herkyc130]

11:09 AM on 04/20/2012

those neo-con supreme flops must be getting spinny eyed about these efforts to overturn their corporate GOP ruling

[efmo]

12:19 PM on 04/20/2012

I wish, but I think they firmly believe they are the "rabble's" betters when it comes to deciding such issues.

[IFany]

11:00 AM on 04/20/2012

I have come to the conclusion thw in this political argument, and there are plenty of examples here, that Progressive are apt to know more and believe less, and Republicans are apt to believe more and know less

[Cheryl2]

11:39 AM on 04/20/2012

Excellent observation.

[hhoc612710]

10:53 AM on 04/20/2012

That's good news thanks to the effort of independent Bernie Sanders and all the petitions signed by ordinary people. Hopefully others states will follow and put pressure on congress to do the right thing .

[pettlesolove]

10:30 AM on 04/20/2012

I have wondered the actual percentage there is per person for corporation representation as opposed to Union representation. I think it may be askew.

[Cheryl2]

11:42 AM on 04/20/2012

Unions represent people and corporations represent business, apples and oranges. Business does not do what is best for people, ever.

[JPHR]

11:52 AM on 04/20/2012

Corporations are organizations of capital (some even foreign at that) focused on profit only without any pretense of democracy.
Unions are organizations of citizens with internal democracy. As such a union represents a group of citizens.

[inspjoe]

11:47 AM on 04/20/2012

unions work for the rank and file members corps only work for the republikkklaners

[efmo]

12:20 PM on 04/20/2012

I think the opposite - republicans (esp. in Congress) work for corps. ;-)

[IFany]

10:00 AM on 04/20/2012

The Supreme court demonstrated that we don;t have wise men on the court, only ideologues who stretch and warp logic to justify their horrendous decisions

[medici]

01:27 PM on 04/20/2012

Five member of the supreme court, anyway. There are actual progressives in the court, but unfortunately they are always overruled these days.

[Jimserac]

03:08 PM on 05/16/2012

Apparently correct.

Why does nobody dare mention the easy fix, the expansion of the Supreme court to 20 or 30 justices so that no one group can easily gain control? Surely we can find more philosopher kings? Or else abandon the thing as obsolete, like the "electoral college" and find another way.