Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Our support letter to the LA City Council

AfD Co-chairs Nancy Price and David Delk wrote the following resolution support letter to the LA City Council:

December 5, 2011

Honorable Los Angeles City Council Members
Los Angeles City Hall
200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
RE: Resolution 11-0002-S123 - Corporate Activities in Electoral Processes

Dear Los Angeles City Council Members,

We write on behalf of the Alliance for Democracy in support of Los Angeles City Council resolution 11-0002-S123 - Corporate Activities in Electoral Processes which calls for a Constitutional Amendment and other legislative actions to establish that only living human beings, not corporations, have inalienable Constitutional rights and that money should not be protected as a form of free speech.

The Alliance for Democracy is a national organization that has members and Branches in California and is also a member of the Move to Amend coalition.

The pernicious doctrine of "corporate personhood" promulgated by the courts has meant that the rights originally intended for natural persons and to protect American citizens from the potentially oppressive powers of our government now belong as well to the corporation, an artificial entity.

Corporations claim these constitutional rights in Federal court to overturn, weaken, or by-pass laws designed to protect the environment, worker safety, public health and a myriad of other laws, including campaign finance laws, of which the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is the most recent and egregious example.

A recent poll by ABC News/Washington Post reveals that over 80% of the American public already
oppose the concept of “corporate personhood’ and that this opposition cuts across the political
spectrum.

We urge the City of Los Angeles to join in the movement to reverse the doctrine of corporate personhood and that money is equal to speech and on December 6th we ask for your “Aye” vote on this vitally important resolution.

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