Portal:Corporate Rights/Occupy Wall Street & Overturning Corporate Personhood

As the "Occupy" protests spread from New York's Zuccotti Park across the country (and the world), opposition to corporate personhood, corporate greed, and corporate influence in America's political system is an ongoing theme.

• On November 18, Rep. Tom Deutsch (D-FL) introduced the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn Citizens United, re-establish the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance, and to effectively outlaw for-profit corporations from contributing to political campaigns. “No matter how long protesters camp out across America, big banks will continue to pour money into shadow groups promoting candidates more likely to slash Medicaid for poor children than help families facing foreclosure,” Deutch in a statement. “No matter how strongly Ohio families fight for basic fairness for workers, the Koch Brothers will continue to pour millions into campaigns aimed at protecting the wealthiest 1%. No matter how fed up seniors in South Florida are with an agenda that puts oil subsidies ahead of Social Security and Medicare, corporations will continue to fund massive publicity campaigns and malicious attack ads against the public interest. Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people. I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy. It is time to return the nation’s capital and our democracy to the people.”

• Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur announced the formation of a political action committee called "Wolf PAC" at Occupy Wall Street on October 19, with the goal of amending the U.S. Constitution to get big money out of politics and restore representative democracy. Uygur, whose online show The Young Turks will move to Al Gore's Current TV network in November, tells the Center for Media and Democracy "politicians represent their donors rather than the people that elected them. We've lost our democracy and our votes have become irrelevant. Who wins an election is determined by who has the most money." He says, "the only solution is to call a constitutional convention to, at a minimum, overturn corporate personhood and create public financing for elections." Read more here.

• The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and Jay Harris of the "We The People" project appeared on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture on October 28 to discuss corporate personhood, and how a constitutional amendment to end it is a top demand at many Occupy protests across the country.

• Lyle Dennison of the National Constitutional Center writes in the Huffington Post about Rabbi Michael Lerner's call for a constitutional amendment that would "require corporations to get a new corporate charter once every five years which they can only get if they can prove a satisfactory history of environmental and social responsibility to a jury of ordinary citizens."

• Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons told CNN October 14 that protestors might remain at Zuccotti Park until Congress passes a constitutional amendment that says “money is going to leave Washington.” “It all goes back to the fact that corporations are controlling our government,” he said. “It’s a democracy. The people should control this government, it’s pretty simple.”

• Ezra Klein writes in the Washington Post that corporate money in politics is a major demand of the DC Occupy protesters.

• On October 14, the Move to Amend coalition released a statement in support of the Occupy protests.

• Dave Niose writes in Psychology Today about how, in his conversations with protesters, a recurring policy aim was a constitutional amendment addressing corporate personhood and redefining the role of corporations.

• On October 7, the Center for Media and Democracy connected the early Occupy protests with the need to separate money and politics.