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Senator Tester's bill is first-ever in US Senate to make clear that constitutional rights are only for people, not corporations

WASHINGTON, DC. – Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) received praise from democracy advocates today for introducing a companion bill to Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern’s “People’s Rights Amendment.”

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, Free Speech For People Co-Founder and President, Jeff Clements, provided testimony to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the Joint Committee on Public Health Public Hearing. 

Here is a brief excerpt below: 

"Chairman Sanchez, Chairman Keenan and Members of the Committee:

Across the Aisle:

The Growing Trans-partisan Opposition to Citizens United

A bipartisan majority of both houses of Delaware’s General Assembly Members have signed a letter calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment reversing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

You can read the letter from the DE General Assembly to Senator Thomas Carper in its entirety here: http://www.united4thepeople.org/images/DE.pdf

"The co-opting of the First Amendment has happened slowly, but not at all by accident. First, it was helped along by questionable court decisions. Today, it is being accelerated by a strange alliance between two groups: a new generation of conservative judges, who have repudiated the judicial restraint their forebears prized, and legendary liberal lawyers, like Floyd Abrams and Laurence Tribe, who, after building their reputations as defenders of free speech, are using their talents to deploy it as a tool of corporate deregulation."

On Wednesday, June 5th Jeff Clements, Free Speech for People co-founder and author of "Corporations Are Not People", will be the featured speaker at MassVOTE's annual spring fundraiser in Downtown Boston. Clements will be discussing how some of the largest corporations in the world organized to take over our government and Constitution, culminating in 2010 with the 5-4 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

An article from the Center for Public Integrity reports that Chevron Corp. shareholders recently rejected a resolution seeking to prohibit the company from using corporate funds for political activities. Chevron's statement reads: "Chevron’s participation in the political process is an important means of protecting the interests of the Company and its stockholders." Read the full story here.

In light of the tremendous victory in Los Angeles, where 77% of voters chose 'Yes' to overturn Citizens United, The Nation Magazine cites our "The Other Scandal" http://TheOtherScandal.com/ campaign with Common Cause as an effort to expand the discussion on the real issue behind the IRS scandal: the lack of rules and regulations governing money in politics. Click for the full story.

Everyone agrees that the IRS screwed up --- but as Chris Hayes of MSNBC makes clear in this video, the real, underlying problem is that the Citizens United decision took our system of fair-play rules that kept tax-exempt groups out of our elections and "blew it out of the water." Watch this video and join us together with Common Cause to demand that Congress focus on the core problem: Citizens United!

A new letter to the editor from our ally at the American Independent Business Alliance asks, "What's 'Pro' business" in light of a recent article from the New York Times that cites that the Citizens United ruling as benefiting American businesses.