To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
DePersonalize Corporations
Constitutional rights should only apply to natural persons (you and I) and not to corporations which are artificial persons created by charters granted by the states or the federal government.
It is sometimes argued that because corporations and the people in them are affected by government decisions, they should be able to make their views known. They can do that already as citizens and can put their personal financial and human capital into trying to persuade governments to adopt policies that favor them. The question is whether these individuals have a second route to affect policy through the corporation by putting corporate financial resources and corporate human capital into the fight for a favorable policy regime in Washington or in the States. The answer surely must be: No!
There are several ways that depersonalization could be achieved. The first would be a constitutional amendment which would have to be passed by a super-majority in Congress and then ratified by a super-majority of the states. An alternative route would be for each state to revise their laws so that, as a condition of receiving a charter, a for profit company (or a non-profit organization) would have to abstain from making political donations to election campaigns or to so called issue PAC's
It is sometimes argued that because corporations and the people in them are affected by government decisions, they should be able to make their views known. They can do that already as citizens and can put their personal financial and human capital into trying to persuade governments to adopt policies that favor them. The question is whether these individuals have a second route to affect policy through the corporation by putting corporate financial resources and corporate human capital into the fight for a favorable policy regime in Washington or in the States. The answer surely must be: No!
There are several ways that depersonalization could be achieved. The first would be a constitutional amendment which would have to be passed by a super-majority in Congress and then ratified by a super-majority of the states. An alternative route would be for each state to revise their laws so that, as a condition of receiving a charter, a for profit company (or a non-profit organization) would have to abstain from making political donations to election campaigns or to so called issue PAC's
Why is this important?
We need a constitutional amendment that will clarify that constitutional rights apply to natural persons (you and I) and not to corporations which are artificial persons created by charters granted by the states or the federal government.