I agree with Nelson Strasser”s Jan. 20 letter regarding the many questions facing modern societies. Finding answers to these myriad of issues from energy security, to jobs and the economy, to health care, can be overwhelming.
As Mr. Strasser points out, a pre-eminent issue is the expansion of corporate influence on our electoral process and it”s effect on our democracy.
The word corporation does not appear in the Constitution, so states included in rules for corporate charters that corporations were persons for the purposes of following the law.
Through a long process of Supreme Court decisions, the earliest in 1886, corporations began to obtain the rights of personhood stated in the Bill of Rights. This included the 14th Amendment, intended to protect Black men after the abolition of slavery (the 13th Amendment); “… nor shall any state deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within it”s jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The Citizen”s United decision (2010) consolidated the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) which granted corporations 1st amendment rights of free speech, and the Buckley v. Valeo decision (1976) that political money is equivalent to speech (timeline/www.movetoamend.org).
How to unravel this web of tortured logic? A starting place is a new amendment declaring that a corporation is not equal to a human being. This clarification is central to the incredible influence of corporate wealth and power over the government.
Amending the Constitution is arduous and requires the support of the citizens. It could take years. But, deciding to amend is a first step to a more centralized structure and coherent strategy.
Kate Schmidt-Hopper
Hidden Valley Lake
