House Resolution 156 on ESRA
H. RES. 156
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 9, 2011
Mr. KUCINICH submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
Calling for an environmental and social responsibility amendment to the United States Constitution.
Whereas it has become settled law and Supreme Court precedent to regard corporations as the legal equivalent of individual persons, with many of the rights, liberties, and protections to which an individual person is entitled;
Whereas corporate persons, by virtue of their ability to create, allocate, and preserve wealth, have an advantage over individual persons in expressing political speech, including campaign contributions, and petitioning their government;
Whereas the United States, the Earth, and its inhabitants face significant dangers from environmentally destructive economic arrangements that derive short-term corporate profits at the expense of long-term, planetary damage;
Whereas the long-term prosperity of the United States and its people is interrelated and inextricable from the long-term sustainability of the Earth; and
Whereas civic, religious, and labor leaders in the United States believe an amendment to the Constitution is necessary to restore individual rights to their traditional supremacy over the rights of corporations and to ensure the long-term interests of the United States people and the world:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that, as articulated in the environmental and social responsibility amendment to the United States Constitution, the Constitution should be amended to subordinate the political rights of corporations to the rights of individuals; and (2) laws of the United States should be amended to include a public Federal election campaign finance system, a social and environmental responsibility education initiative, and a new Federal corporate charter statute to facilitate environmentally and socially responsible corporate practices.
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