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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