To: President Donald Trump
President Obama: Use inaugural to advocate for a Constitutional amendment
We support your conviction that a Constitutional amendment is needed to address money in politics. Please share that conviction with the world during your inaugural address. January 21, 2013 is three years to the day after the Supreme Court's infamous "Citizens United" ruling that further institutionalized the radical fiction that corporations are people and money is speech. Use this historic opportunity to inspire the action needed to return democracy to We the People.
Why is this important?
It is the issue that underlies all others: money--particularly from corporations--is undermining our democracy. The Supreme Court, most infamously through the Citizens United ruling, has given corporations constitutional rights meant for individuals, leading to unlimited, anonymous spending on elections, and outsize corporate influence on government. "Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United," wrote President Obama. "Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change." January's inaugural address is an historic opportunity to galvanize support for an amendment--one that clearly states that We, the People of the United States of America move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.