Pass Bill No. 130059 and Resolution No. 130073, which create a citizens' referendum calling on Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to ratify a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission by allowing limits to be placed on political campaign spending, reducing the influence of money in politics, and establishing that corporations are not people with constitutional rights.
Why is this important?
Countless times in our nation's history, we've seen the amazing power of democracy - how ordinary people, often without much money, joined together to bring about lasting change.
In Citizens United, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate money in elections by declaring that corporations are people and money is speech.
Now, our democracy is at grave risk of becoming nothing more than an auction-one in which the We the People will always be outbid.
Corporations are not people. They do not breathe or eat or sleep. They do not dance or fall in love or raise children. They do not go bowling or fight in wars or get cancer. They do not vote. Yet now they threaten to trample democracy by claiming constitutional protections that were intended only for actual people.
The ruling must be overturned, and a constitutional amendment is the best way to do that.
Millions of voters across the country have expressed their outrage at the Citizens United decision by voting on ballot questions and it's time for Philadelphians to get the chance to express our outrage too.
Right now the Citizens United ballot question is bottled up in the Law and Government Committee.
Please sign this petition so we can convince City Council to let Philadelphia voters have our say.
