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The We The People/Move To Amend amendment is a proposal to get 2/3 of the states, individually, to request our federal government to return the power back to the people.
Move To Amend is a grassroots, multi-partisan, movement that has multiple volunteer organizations in every state.  Minnesota, for example, has groups in Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Rochester, and Grand Rapids.  Seventeen states have already passed legislation to amend our United States Constitution; the proposal passed the Minnesota Senate during the 2013 legislative session, but came up just a few votes short in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Governor Mark Dayton, in the past, has indicated his support.

What are the specific wording of the We The People/Move To Amend Amendment?
(The following is from the national Move To Amend Website)
“Move to Amend’s “We the People” Amendment:
Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights]
The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.  The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.
Section 2. [Money is Not Free Speech]
Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.”

What is corporate personhood and what is wrong with it?
“Corporate personhood” commonly refers to the Supreme Court-created precedent of mega- corporations enjoying constitutional rights that were intended solely for human beings. Move To Amend believes this form of “corporate personhood” corrupts our Constitution and must be corrected by amending the Constitution. Many corporations are the backbone of our country.  Not all abuse the power they have achieved. Unfortunately, too often the things that keep a person alive, clean air, clean water, and healthy food are the very things that are contaminated in order for some corporations to live.  Too often those things harm, and kill people.  In those situations, multi-international corporations are the opposite of people.   Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the United States Constitution ever mention corporations, nor a corporation, and were intentionally left out of our United States Constitution by our Founding Fathers.  Corporations, as we know them today, were illegal for over 100 years after our American Revolution.  But thanks to decades of rulings by Justices who molded the law to favor elite interests, corporations today are granted so-called “rights” that empower them to deny citizens the right to full self-governance.
Justices since have struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws enacted to protect people from corporate harm based on this illegitimate premise. Armed with these “rights,” multi international corporations wield ever-increasing control over jobs, the ballot box, our environment, politicians, even control of judges, and the law.
Move To Amend believes corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges citizens and their elected representatives willfully grant them. The “We the People” Amendment will reverse the Court’s invention of “corporate personhood” and limit corporations to their proper role: doing business.
How did multi-international corporations achieve corporate personhood?
It is only through the court system that the best lawyers, and the best lobbyists, in the world have managed, through Supreme Court decisions such as the 2010 Citizens United, to achieve corporate personhood. According to the First Amendment of our United States Constitution, the judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech.

Why all this talk about democracy? Isn’t the United States a republic?
According to the national Move To Amend website, our use of the term “democracy” is shorthand for what is technically our political system -  a democratic republic with direct election by citizens of other citizens to represent us, We the People. “Democracy” accurately describes, however, the direct ability and power of citizens through education, advocacy and organizing to influence other citizens, the media and elected officials through organizations, campaigns and social movements.
“Democracy” is also an accurate description of the several ways We the People in many states directly govern and bypass elected representatives. These include the initiative, referendum and recall - the power of citizens to create laws, reverse laws and remove elected representatives.
Whether democracy, republic, or democratic republic, they (and we) are all effectively weakened when corporations possess inalienable constitutional rights to influence public opinion, shape public laws, mold public officials and intimidate public communities.

Why is the We The People/Move To Amend amendment important to us?
Every time multi-international corporations gain more control over our elections, ever time they gain more control over delivering the message that can be used to control the citizens, every time they write and pass legislation favorable to their efforts without the population knowing where that money comes from, the people lose more, and more of their control over their country.  “We the people” is becoming “We the multi-international corporations.  When it takes 25+ million dollars for candidates to run their political campaigns, as was the case in the District 8 House of Representatives seat for Northern Minnesota two years ago, the individuals ability to control who gets elected is diminished.  Corporate interests are drowning out the people’s voices, the people’s votes.

David Cobb, Co-Founder of Move To Amend, will be delivering a free message to the Duluth area on July 22nd at the Coppertop Church, starting at 7:00 p.m.  Mr. Cobb will also be attending the Minnesota Premier movie showing of “Shadows of Freedom” at the Teatro Zuccone, on July 20th, starting at 7:00.  David will be part of a question/answer session following the movie presentation.  Contact Tom Starkey, Duluth Area Move To amend, at 218-591-6881 or Contact Jessica Munger, National Move to Amend, at 707-269-0984 for more information.   

DAVID COBB,
Move To Amend
Co-Founder
Barnstorming Event!

Coppertop First United
Methodist Church,
230 East Skyline Parkway
Tuesday, July 22nd, 7:00 p.m.

It’s time to change the rules!

David Cobb is a lawyer, political activist, and engaged citizen from California. He has dedicated his adult life to making the promise of a democratic republic a reality in America. He truly believes we must use ALL the tools in the toolbox to effect the systemic social change we so desperately need.
He leads the fight against the Supreme Court “Citizens United” ruling that  now includes unlimited corporate spending, via this spring’s McCutcheon ruling.  Corporations are not people! Multi-international corporate money is not speech.
Coffee, cookies/bars/treats will be served.