84R2773 RA-D
 
  By: Thompson of Harris H.C.R. No. 49
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, Discarding a century of precedent, the United States
  Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
  swept aside long-standing campaign finance laws and cleared the way
  for unlimited corporate spending in elections; and
         WHEREAS, The five justices in the majority ruled that
  political spending is a form of protected speech under the First
  Amendment and that the government may not prevent corporations from
  giving money to support or oppose individual candidates for public
  office; the United States Constitution, however, does not mention
  corporations and endows only natural persons with the right to
  speak, assemble, and petition; there is no evidence that the
  framers of the constitution wished to extend to corporations the
  same rights as natural persons in the electoral context; and
         WHEREAS, Corporations, as the four dissenting judges noted in
  their opinion, are legal entities with no consciences, beliefs,
  feelings, thoughts, or desires; these entities help structure and
  facilitate the activities of human beings but are not themselves
  members of "We the People," by whom and for whom the constitution
  was established; the conditional rights of corporations are granted
  not by the constitution but rather through the legislative
  deliberations of Congress and the states; and
         WHEREAS, Unlike natural persons, corporations are granted
  certain privileges, including limited liability, perpetual life,
  and favorable treatment of the accumulation and distribution of
  assets, that enhance their ability to attract capital and to
  maximize the return on their shareholders' investments; yet these
  very privileges give corporations the financial capacity to drown
  out the individual voices of natural persons, which is why Congress
  and the states have rightly sought to restrict the influence of
  corporate power on our political system; moreover, corporations may
  be under the control of citizens of foreign countries who are
  ineligible to participate in our elections; and
         WHEREAS, Article V of the U.S. Constitution empowers the
  people and the states to correct egregious Supreme Court rulings by
  means of constitutional amendment, and 7 of the extant 27
  amendments were enacted for just such a purpose; the tide of
  corporate money that has been unleashed in the wake of Citizens
  United deeply threatens the free speech protections of individuals,
  and the amendment process must be used to reverse this erroneous and
  damaging decision; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
  propose and submit to the states for ratification an amendment to
  the United States Constitution that overturns Citizens United v.
  Federal Election Commission, clearly establishing that the
  spending of money to influence elections shall not be construed as
  speech under the First Amendment and may be regulated by federal,
  state, or local government, and clarifying that only natural
  persons are protected by constitutional rights and that
  corporations, limited liability companies, and other artificial
  entities derive their rights through the legislative deliberations
  of Congress and the states and remain subject to regulation by the
  people through federal, state, or local law; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
  the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
  Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
  members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
  this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
  memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.