If You Could Amend the Constitution

The New York Times asked readers to submit suggestions for amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Those printed were on July 7 at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/opinion/constitution-amendments.html

My submission below was not among them….

To the Editor,

Corporations and the wealthy have hijacked the Revolution’s goal of replacing King George with We the People as the sovereign power.

Move to Amend’s “We the People Amendment,” H.J.R 48 with 58 Congressional cosponsors, declares our independence from corporate rule and the wealthy by establishing that only human beings possess inalienable constitutional rights and money isn’t free speech and can be regulated in elections.

Corporations were originally subordinate to people through state charters. Activist courts came to the rescue by anointing them with never-intended constitutional 1^st, 4^th, 5^th and 14^th Amendment rights, as well as protections under the Commerce and Contracts clauses. Money in elections has also been largely shielded from democratic regulation. The impact has been the buying of elections and the overturning of democratically enacted laws protecting communities, workers, consumers, family farms and the environment.

A legitimate democratic republic is impossible when corporations and money possess constitutional rights.

Greg Coleridge
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Outreach Director, Move to Amend