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
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—
(1)Constitution of the United States 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.