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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, Free and fair elections are essential to democracy |
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and effective self-governance, but the United States Supreme Court, |
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in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, decided that the |
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American people are powerless to limit corporate expenditures aimed |
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at influencing state and federal elections; and |
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WHEREAS, The 5-4 decision allowed unlimited corporate |
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spending in elections as a form of "free speech" for the corporate |
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"person," but unlike human beings, who actually vote in elections, |
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a corporation is a government-created structure for doing business |
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that may only be used for purposes defined by the state or federal |
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statute that permitted its creation; further undermining the idea |
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of corporate personhood is the fact that corporations can exist |
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simultaneously in many nations and the fact that they can exist in |
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perpetuity; and |
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WHEREAS, Corporations are not mentioned in the United States |
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Constitution as originally adopted, nor have Congress and the |
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states recognized corporations as legal persons in any subsequent |
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federal constitutional amendment; in addition, the radical |
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decision in Citizens United casts aside more than a century of |
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precedent prohibiting corporate contributions to federal election |
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campaigns, dating back to the Tillman Act of 1907; and |
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WHEREAS, Before the supreme court ruling, corporations |
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already used their power to successfully seek the judicial reversal |
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of democratically enacted laws that aimed to curb corporate abuse, |
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but Citizens United has unleashed billions of dollars of corporate |
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money into the election process, making it highly unlikely such |
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laws will now even be proposed; as candidates for public office |
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compete for corporate funds, their attention is diverted from the |
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interests and needs of their human constituents to the interests of |
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large corporations, and the two are often in direct conflict; and |
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WHEREAS, The Citizens United decision distorts the meaning of |
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the First Amendment and dramatically dilutes the vote and voice of |
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every individual American who does not control a large corporate |
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treasury; in order to prevent irreparable damage to our democracy |
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by a deluge of corporate dollars, it is necessary to amend the |
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United States Constitution to affirm that only human beings are |
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persons and that corporations are not part of "We the People" by |
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whom and for whom our constitution was established; now, therefore, |
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be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to |
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propose and submit to the states for ratification an amendment to |
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the United States Constitution that defines persons as human beings |
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only and that provides that corporations are not persons under the |
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laws of the United States or any of its jurisdictional |
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subdivisions; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
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copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
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the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
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Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the |
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members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
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this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a |
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memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |