Move to Amend

In light of the impact of recent legal decisions, we are exploring and advocating for legislative actions to correct the corrosive effects of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision on our democratic system of government. Since campaign funding is currently impacted and governed by the Citizens United decision, it is likely that a constitutional amendment will be needed.

We encourage members of our congregation to:

Become informed about the “Move to Amend” movement (national, interfaith, and non-religiously affiliated);

Write to our Congressional Representatives and Senators about this issue;

Participate in a vote of our congregation in January 2016 in support of a resolution to support a constitutional amendment to establish that corporations are not persons, that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights, and that money is not protected speech.

The resolution reads:

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, New York, stands with the Move to Amend campaign and communities across the country to defend democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate power by amending the United States Constitution to establish that:

  • Only human beings, not corporations, are endowed with Constitutional rights, and

  • Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

Our discussion on November 1, attended by 20 church members and friends, noted the following facts and concerns:

  • A tiny number of individuals (~200 families, in one report) provide the vast majority of funding for politicians. This wealthy elite has undue influence in our political system. Through their support of campaign advertising, they are able to get their candidates at the top of polls, leading them to be perceived as “winners” in a competition that is increasingly based on how much you can spend.
    PACs and Super-PACs play a negative role in funding campaigns.
  • This situation effectively means that those who lack these financial resources in effect LOSE their right to speech. BIG money in politics takes away our voice.
  • Information that can hold sway in various media is disproportionately influenced by corporations and this disrupts essential democratic debate on many critical issues and problems: e.g., inequality, shrinking middle/working class, revolving door in politics/ business, climate change.

Action opportunities and challenges we face in our social justice advocacy work include:

  • Reaching out to the public and collaborating with others such as the League of Women Voters on citizen education.
  • Hosting political informational meetings at our church.
  • Collaborating with others (including the local universities) to bring a high profile speaker on this issue (e.g., Zephyr Teachout, author of the new book, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United).
  • Reaching beyond our church community and involving members of the general population, and not simply “preach to the choir”
  • Using the Internet as an important source of information for voters, considering ways we can maximize the impact we can have via the Web in our outreach efforts.
  • Publicizing our social justice education and advocacy work; communicating our action on this resolution in the community press and news outlets;
  • Becoming a community leader on this issue.

Web Resources:
Move to Amend
Interfaith Caucus (Move to Amend)
UUA Action of Immediate Witness 2013
Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
UUJEC video
Interfaith Impact of NYS

Notes from the Move to Amend Discussion
(Social Action Committee, November 1, 2015)