Nolan Introduces Constitutional Amendment Declaring Corporations Are Not People, Money is Not Free Speech

Statement

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan has introduced legislation calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision which granted corporations and other legal entities the right of free speech under the First Amendment and opened federal election campaigns to the free flow of billions of unrestricted and unreported dollars.

At a news conference in Washington with representatives of the nationwide Move to Amend Coalition, Nolan said, "It's time to establish once and for all that corporations are not people, money is not free speech, and our elections and public policy-making process are not for sale to the highest corporate bidders. It's time to take the molding and shaping of public policy out of corporate boardrooms, away from corporate lobbyists, and give it back to the American people."

Joining Nolan as original co-sponsors of the bill are U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Matthew Cartwright (D-PA), Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).

Since returning to Congress in 2013 after a 32 year hiatus, Nolan has railed against the huge amounts of outside money the Citizens United decision has allowed into federal campaigns to fund negative advertising -- forcing Members to spend an inordinate amount of time raising funds to counter the attacks instead of doing the business of Congress.

In announcing his legislation, Nolan further explained that the power corporate money has over campaigns and elections transcends to enormous and destructive influence over our public policies -- whether it's tax and trade policies that encourage the export of good American jobs, banking and investment policies the pretend to govern Wall Street, price supports for wealthy farmers or sweetheart deals for defense contractors.

The Move to Amend coalition (www.movetoamend.org), which sponsored the news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, was formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Today, the coalition of more than 380,000 people and hundreds of organizations has helped pass over 600 resolutions in municipalities including Duluth, MN, and local governments across the nation in support of what they term the "We the People" Amendment. Sixteen state legislatures have passed similar resolutions.

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