As Introduced
135th General Assembly
Regular Session S. R. No. 180
2023-2024
Senators Smith, Antonio
Cosponsors: Senators Craig, DeMora, Hicks-Hudson
A RESOLUTION
To call on legislators at the state and federal 1
level and other communities and jurisdictions to 2
support an amendment to the United States 3
Constitution that would abolish corporate 4
personhood and the doctrine of money as speech. 5
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
WHEREAS, Government of, by, and for the people has long 6
been a cherished American value, and We the People's inalienable 7
right of self-government is guaranteed in the United States 8
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; and 9
WHEREAS, Free and fair elections are essential to democracy 10
and effective self-governance; and 11
WHEREAS, Persons are rightfully recognized as human beings 12
whose essential needs include clean water and safe and secure 13
food; and 14
WHEREAS, Corporations are entirely human-made legal 15
entities created by express permission of We the People and our 16
government; and 17
WHEREAS, Corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist 18
simultaneously in many nations, need only profit for survival, 19
and exist solely through the legal charter imposed by the 20
S. R. No. 180 Page 2
As Introduced
government of We the People; and 21
WHEREAS, The great wealth of large corporations allows them 22
to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and 23
communities, thus denying We the People's exercise of our 24
constitutional rights; and 25
WHEREAS, Corporations are not mentioned in the 26
Constitution, and We the People have never granted 27
constitutional rights to corporations, nor have we decreed that 28
corporations have authority that exceeds the authority of We the 29
People of the United States; and 30
WHEREAS, Interpretation of the United States Constitution 31
by appointed Supreme Court justices to include corporations in 32
the term "persons" has long denied We the People's exercise of 33
self-governance by endowing corporations with constitutional 34
protections intended for We the People; and 35
WHEREAS, The judicial bestowal of civil and political 36
rights upon corporations can usurp basic human and 37
constitutional rights guaranteed to human persons, and also 38
empowers corporations to sue municipal and state governments for 39
adopting laws that violate "corporate rights," even when those 40
laws serve to protect and defend the rights of human persons and 41
communities; and 42
WHEREAS, Corporations are not and never have been human 43
beings, and therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings 44
and governments as our legal creations; and 45
WHEREAS, The recent decision of the United States Supreme 46
Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 47
U.S. 310 (2010), which rolled back the legal limits on spending 48
in the electoral process, creates an unequal playing field and 49
allows unlimited spending by wealthy individuals, corporations, 50
and other entities to influence elections, candidate selection, 51
S. R. No. 180 Page 3
As Introduced
and policy decisions and to sway votes and compels elected 52
officials to divert their attention from the People's business 53
or even to vote against the interest of their human constituents 54
in order to ensure competitive campaign funds for their own 55
reelection; and 56
WHEREAS, The judicial interpretation that construes 57
spending money in political campaigns as speech is contrary to 58
the notion of one person, one vote and allows those with the 59
most money to have an unfair advantage in a political system 60
that should ensure that all citizens have equal access to the 61
political process and an equal ability to influence the outcome 62
of elections; and 63
WHEREAS, Money is property, not speech; and 64
WHEREAS, Large corporations own most of America's mass 65
media and use that media as a megaphone to express loudly their 66
political agenda and to convince Americans that their primary 67
role is that of consumers, rather than sovereign citizens with 68
rights and responsibilities within our democracy; and 69
WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of people and municipalities 70
across the nation are joining with the Move to Amend campaign to 71
call for an amendment to the United States Constitution to 72
abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as 73
speech; now therefore be it 74
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Ohio calls on 75
legislators at the state and federal levels to join the tens of 76
thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations, and local 77
governments across the country in the Move to Amend campaign to 78
call for an amendment to the United States Constitution to 79
abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as speech 80
and thereby return our democracy, our elections, and our 81
communities to America's human persons and thus claim our 82
sovereign right of self-governance; and be it further 83
S. R. No. 180 Page 4
As Introduced
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Ohio calls on 84
other communities and jurisdictions to join with it in this 85
action by adopting similar resolutions; and be it further 86
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Ohio supports 87
education to increase public awareness of the threats to our 88
democracy posed by corporate personhood and encourages lively 89
discussion to build understanding and consensus to take 90
appropriate community and municipal actions to democratically 91
respond to these threats; and be it further 92
RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit duly 93
authenticated copies of this resolution to the Speaker of the 94
House of Representatives of the State of Ohio and to Ohio's 95
congressional delegation. 96