Corporations Are Not People

How Corporate Schools Rip Off Taxpayers, Families and Students

Jeff Clements — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:35:30 +0000

In my book, Corporations Are Not People, I talk about Bridgepoint Education, among other corporate school rip-offs of students and taxpayers. Taxpayers effectively transfer billions of dollars of student loans and government guarantees to corporate executives and Wall Street investors, and get very little in return.

A United States Senate investigation has reported that “over 87 percent of total revenues [to corporate schools] came directly from the federal government, but 57 percent of the students who enrolled between 2008-2009 have departed without a diploma but with a high probability of debt.” The sixteen largest for-profit schools had profits of $2.7 billion in 2009, with some corporations doubling profits between 2009 and 2010 alone. In 2011, when the Department of Education proposed to apply minimal performance standards (based on actual student graduation rates) to corporations that take billions of taxpayer dollars, the corporations threatened a lawsuit claiming a Constitutional right to prevent that public accountability.

The Bridgepoint story is pretty illustrative. In the 2009-2010 year, Bridgepoint’s Ashford University received $613 million in federal student aid funds. “Ashford University” used to be Franciscan College, a non-profit school operated by the Sisters of St. Francis. They used to spend $5,000 per student on education. Then Bridgepoint, backed by a private equity firm, bought out the school, changed the name, raised the tuition to as high as $46,000, and lowered spending per student on education to about $700.

From 300 students at Franciscan University in 2005, enrollment (including on-line students) at the newly corporatized Ashford University went to nearly 78,000 by 2010. Most of these new recruits quickly drop out, but not before Bridgepoint collects a lot of money. 84% of students enrolled in an associate degree program at Ashford University are gone by the next year (63% of students in the bachelors degree program do not return the next year). Bridgepoint employs more than 1,700 people to recruit new students; it employs one person to help students with job placement.

Bad performance, right? Maybe if you’re measuring performance by how well the education’s going. But that’s not how corporate, for-profit schools measure performance. Bridgepoint paid its CEO, Andrew Clark, $20.5 million in 2009, and a total of $36 million to its top five executives. The Sisters of St. Francis must be horrified.

Now Republic Report, a daily eye-opener about corporate power, Congress and corruption brought to us by United Republic, is exposing how campaign contributions and corporate corruption of politicians drives this process. Check out Online Education Companies Donate to Congressman; He Introduces Bill Subsidizing Them. And then let’s do something.

Constitutional Amendment Push on Citizens United Heating Up in the States [w/video]

Jeff Clements — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:08:59 +0000

Rhode Island has become the fourth State to enact a resolution calling on Congress to send a Constitutional amendment reversing Citizens United v. FEC to the states for ratification. The Rhode Island vote follows similar resolutions in New Mexico, Hawaii and Vermont. Several other states are poised to follow. The state resolutions reflect a growing consensus that the 5-4 decision in Citizens United – - which ruled that Americans are not permitted to limit election spending by corporations and unions – - is a dangerous departure from settled First Amendment law and principles of republican democracy.

Last month, State Attorneys General from Mississippi, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Montana, New Mexico, Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island and Kentucky asked the United States Senate Judiciary Committee to move the Constitutional amendment process forward. The Attorneys General call for a 28^th Amendment to “put the electoral process back where it belongs: in the hands of the people, not corporations.”

More than 100 cities and towns across the country have also passed Constitutional amendment resolutions.

And in Montana, they are not waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on Montana’s challenge to Citizens United in the Western Tradition Partnership v. Bullock case. Initiative 166 will allow the citizens of Montana to vote in the Fall on a resolution condemning Citizens United and the recent fabrication of Constitutional (as opposed to legislative) rights for corporations. Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, has joined the state’s Lieutenant Governor John Bolinger, a Republican, in supporting the measure. “Both the Lt. Governor and I strongly believe Montanans, and our country, need to stand together to address the problem of corporate money in our elections,” said Governor Schweitzer. The Governor discussed the Constitutional amendment ballot initiative with Chris Matthews on Hardball recently:

In Challenge to Citizens United, Free Speech for People & Business Groups File Supreme Court Brief

Jeff Clements — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:04:57 +0000

Free Speech for People has filed a brief in the Supreme Court in American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, a case that challenges Citizens United v. FEC and raises the issue of whether the State of Montana can prohibit election spending by corporations. The people of Montana enacted the corporate spending restriction by referendum in 1912. The Montana Supreme Court upheld the law in December, notwithstanding Citizens United, and a corporate lobbying/spending entity has appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Free Speech for People brief, joined by the American Sustainable Business Council, the American Independent Business Alliance, and a Montana business corporation, is here. Free Speech for People’s press release is here, and below.

FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE AND BUSINESS GROUPS URGE US SUPREME COURT TO REVERSE CITIZENS UNITED

MONTANA’S BAN ON CORPORATE MONEY IN ELECTIONS PRESENTS

FIRST DIRECT CHALLENGE TO 2010 RULING

Amicus Brief Filed Before the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition that includes two national business networks and a local Montana business filed a brief today before the United States Supreme Court urging it to revisit and reverse its ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

The 2010 ruling faces its first direct challenge in a case dealing with Montana’s century-old ban on corporate political expenditures. In late December, the Montana Supreme Court upheld Montana’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act in American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, setting the stage for this new test case before the US Supreme Court.

The coalition is led by Free Speech For People, a national campaign to overturn Citizens United. Other signatories to the brief include the American Sustainable Business Council, representing a network of more than 100,000 businesses across the country; the American Independent Business Alliance, based in Bozeman, Montana; and Mike’s Thriftway, a supermarket business in Chester, Montana.

The brief argues that the facts which have developed in the two years since the Citizens United decision demonstrate that the Court was wrong in ruling that unlimited corporate spending in our elections would not present a threat of corruption or the appearance of corruption. The brief also argues that corporations should not be treated as people with constitutional rights and that the government’s interest in preventing corporate and wealthy donors from drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens justifies restrictions on election expenditures, such as the ban in the Montana Corrupt Practices Act.

“By granting corporations a constitutional right to spend unlimited corporate funds on elections, at the expense of the people’s right to prevent the resulting corruption and distortion of our electoral process, the Citizens Unitedruling undermines First Amendment values and the integrity of our republican democracy itself,” says Ben Clements, the author of the coalition’s brief. Clements, a Board member of Free Speech For People, is a former federal prosecutor, former chief counsel to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and a founding partner of the Boston law firm of Clements & Pineault. “The US Supreme Court should accept the Montana case for review on its merits and should use this opportunity to revisit and reverse Citizens United,” Clements added.

On February 17, 2012, the US Supreme Court issued a stay of the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling, thereby preventing the continued enforcement of the state’s Corrupt Practices Act and allowing, for the first time in 100 years, corporate spending in Montana elections. In an unusual statement accompanying the stay order, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer urged their fellow Justices to reconsider Citizens United via the Montana case.

“Montana’s experience, and experience elsewhere since this Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations ‘do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,’” Justice Ginsburg wrote, joined by Justice Breyer. The Montana case, the Justices continued, “will give the Court an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates’ allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway.”

“All businesses must ask the question: Are our goals furthered by pay-to-play elections where precious capital is diverted to politics, or should we focus on our business and the benefits that we bring to the local and national economy? Montana’s ban on corporate spending should be applauded as a national model. The US Supreme Court should recognize it as such and should reverse the damage caused to our democracy by the Citizens Unitedruling,” says David Levine, CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council.

“Montana has the right and the duty to defend its laws against Beltway-based corporate front groups,” says Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the Bozeman, MT – based American Independent Business Alliance. “Butte, Libby and other Montana communities are still recovering from the ravages of large corporations whose political power allowed them to profit at the expense of Montanans’ health and our environment. Overturning our essential protections for election integrity would invite even more harm while allowing out-of-state corporations to gain political favors that undermine Montana entrepreneurs.”

Joining Ben Clements as co-counsel on the coalition’s friend-of-the-court brief are Hofstra University law professor Daniel Greenwood; Jeff Clements, the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People and author of the new book, Corporations Are Not People; and John Bonifaz, the co-founder and executive director of Free Speech For People.

Launched on the day of the Citizens United ruling, Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan campaign challenging the fabrication of corporate rights under the US Constitution and seeking to ensure that people, not corporations, govern in America.

Montana Standing Up Video From Free Speech for People

Jeff Clements — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:18:19 +0000

On the April 19th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord that launched the American Revolution, Free Speech for People has released this one-minute video ad, Montana Standing Up.

Here’s the link.

Stealing America

Jeff Clements — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:25:59 +0000

Stealing America: Wealthy Interests Are Taking Over Our Political System. A very interesting, bi-partisan piece from the Pittsburg-Post Gazette, jointly written by a Republican “political operative” and a former media advisor to President Clinton. They conclude that in America, “we have lost our national sense of stewardship,” and they blame Citizens United and the domination of elections and government by the super-wealthy.

Moving quietly at first, and now shamelessly, America’s wealthy special interests and their allies with uncompromising views are taking over this country’s political establishment. . . .

Dysfunctional behavior is undermining America’s role as a global leader and is laying the groundwork for crippling institutional failures . . .

When the Supreme Court anointed corporations with the privileges and powers of personhood in its 2010 Citizens United decision, it undermined our constitutional protections and threatened the legitimacy of our democracy. Ordinary citizens must now be constantly and intensively active to fight off wealthy, well-organized special interests.

The article is here.

Video: Corporations Are Not People on Stream of Conscience with John Hartwell

Jeff Clements — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:20:05 +0000

I was in Connecticut recently and enjoyed talking about Corporations Are Not People and the People’s Rights Amendment campaign with John Hartwell on Stream of Conscience. Here’s the video:

Attorney’s General Across Country Call For Constitutional Amendment to Reverse Citizens United

Jeff Clements — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:42:39 +0000

Eleven Attorneys General have written a letter calling on Congress to move a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. The 5-4 Citizens United decision holds that Americans cannot limit election spending in national, state, or local elections because, according to the majority, doing so would violate corporate speech rights.

The letter to Congress calling for the 28th Amendment is signed by Attorneys General from Massachusetts, Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.

The Attorneys General call for a 28th Amendment in order “to put the electoral process back where it belongs: in the hands of the people, not corporations.”

Free Speech for People hailed the news and provides more background here.

A copy of the letter is here.

Why global corporations spend so much to control govt & elections

Jeff Clements — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:04:09 +0000

This from Republic Report about sums it up. “Big Pharma has a ROI of 75,500 percent for the lobbying dollars it spends to bar the government from bargaining for cheaper drug prices through Medicare.”

Report from Wisconsin Shows Cross-Partisan Demand for 28th Amendment

Jeff Clements — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:54:35 +0000

Move to Amend reports:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2012

CONTACT:
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Field Organizing Director, 707-269-0984, info@movetoamend.org
Mary Laan, Move to Amend Southeast Wisconsin Coordinator, 414-265-5801, sewmta@movetoamend.org

Voters in West Allis, Wisconsin Move to Amend

WEST ALLIS – Last night West Allis, Wisconsin, a conservative Milwaukee suburb, voted overwhelmingly to reject the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling. Republican Party primary voters approved a resolution calling for an amendment to the US Constitution to establish that corporations are not people and money is not speech by 70%, becoming the most recent community to vote to support the Move to Amend campaign.

“Last night’s vote clearly shows that corporate personhood is an issue that cuts across party lines,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a member of the Move to Amend coalition’s national Executive Committee. “Our volunteers in West Allis received as much support as our campaigns in Madison or Boulder last year. Americans from all sides of the political spectrum are ready to get corporations out of the Constitution and out of our political process.”

The Move to Amend coalition has already seen a great deal of success using the municipal resolutions strategy. Los Angeles is the largest city to date to pass a Move to Amend resolution through their city council, and resolutions have passed in dozens of other cities including Duluth, MN, Albany, NY, Asheville, NC, and Key West, FL. Last month residents of Vermont approved resolutions in over 60 towns through their town meeting process.

Move to Amend volunteers have also taken the campaign directly to the voters of others towns. In Madison, WI, Boulder, CO, and Missoula, MT local Move to Amend groups were able to pass resolutions through voter initiatives last November. In all communities the resolutions passed with 75% of the vote or more.

Communities with initiatives underway this year include Salt Lake City, UT, and Mendocino and Lake Counties in California. Several additional communities are expected to ask their city councils to refer initiatives to the ballot as part of Move to Amend’s “Resolutions Week” campaign this June. Resolutions Week is a joint effort of many organizations to pass another round of resolutions across the country in June.

Currently, polling indicates that almost 80% of Americans are in favor of overturning the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, with a majority supporting an amendment to establish that corporations are not entitled to Constitutional rights.

Move to Amend, which has experienced exponential growth in recent months, is a national grassroots coalition seeking to pass a constitutional amendment that states that Constitutional rights belong to human beings only, not to artificial legal entities such as corporations or labor unions; and that money is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.

For a list of cities that have passed resolutions or that have campaigns in progress see: http://movetoamend.org/resolutions-map.

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More Reports of Foreign Interests/Global Corporations Meddling in American Elections

Jeff Clements — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:33:42 +0000

Where did the hundreds of millions of dollars that were used in the ubiquitous attack ads in the 201o mid-term elections come from? Who funded attack ads such as the fraudulent one that falsely accused a Congresswoman of supporting Viagra for rapists in the health care reform law? According to Bloomberg, the multi-billion, transnational corporation Merck & Co. and other pharmaceutical corporations secretly were behind that one.

Nearly two years after the elections, the truth slowly is coming out about how some of the biggest, most global corporations in the world corruptly influenced American elections after Citizens United. Bloomberg links millions of dollars of contributions and spending from global corporations through front groups such as the American Action Network and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Merck, the corporations meddling in American elections include Chevron, Prudential Financial Inc., and Target.

Previous reports show that the global corporations such as News Corporation funneled millions of dollars into the 2010 election. As with most global corporations, News Corporation’s largest shareholders also are global corporations based around the world. For example, the second largest shareholder in News Corporation, after the Murdoch family, is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia, holding more than $2 billion of shares. Similarly, more than half of the shareholders of the Germany-based Merck & Co. are outside the United States.

Earlier this month, the Sunlight Foundation reported on how the Citizens United decision could lead to foreign interests influencing the outcome of American elections.

It remains illegal for foreign human beings to engage in U.S. election spending. As a recent Court decision says, “it is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government.”