In keeping with the Founders' original intent, the legal meaning of the term "persons" shall be reserved exclusively for living human beings. As a result, they and they alone--not corporations--shall hereby be entitled to the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights and guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Why is this important?
Ever since 1886, thanks to a headnote in a Supreme Court ruling--not the ruling itself--corporations have enjoyed the legal status of persons under the Constitution and therefore all the basic freedoms intended for living human beings, including freedom of speech. Since freedom of speech has been interpreted to mean the right to make donations to political campaigns, a "right" vastly amplified by the recent Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the result has been catastrophic to the democratic process. The intention of this petition is to trigger a Constitutional amendment that would roll back the power of corporations and reinstate authentic democracy: government by the people
