Campaign Finance Reform_Council Position ResolutionRESOLUTION NO. 32 -14
RESOLUTION TO ESTABLISH AS A POSITION OF THE DUBUQUE CITY COUNCIL
THAT CORPORATIONS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE THE SAME CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS AS NATURAL PERSONS DO, AND THAT BECAUSE MONEY IS NOT
SPEECH, LIMITS ON POLITICAL SPENDING WILL PROMOTE THE GOALS OF THE
FIRST AMENDMENT BY ENSURING THAT ALL CITIZENS, REGARDLESS OF
WEALTH, HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS HEARD
WHEREAS, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are intended to
protect the rights of individual human beings ( "natural persons "); and, WHEREAS,
corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution and The People have never granted
constitutional rights to corporations, and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court recognized in Austin v. Michigan
Chamber of Commerce (1990) the threat to a republican form of government posed by
"the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are
accumulated with the help of the corporate form and that have little or no correlation to
the public's support for the corporations political ideas "; and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. the Federal
Election Commission(2010) reversed the decision in Austin, and presents a serious
threat to self - government by rolling back legal limits on corporate spending in the
electoral process allowing unlimited corporate spending to influence elections,
candidate selection, policy decisions and sway votes; and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court held in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that
the appearance of corruption justified limits on contributions to candidates, but it
wrongly rejected other fundamental interests that the City Council finds compelling such
as creating a level playing field and ensuring that all citizens, regardless of wealth, have
an opportunity to have their political views heard; and
WHEREAS, money is property, it is not speech; and
WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution empowers and obligates the
people of the states of the United States of America to use the constitutional
amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States
Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and the republican form of self -
government.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT. RESOLVED that it is the position of the Dubuque City
Council that corporations should not receive the same constitutional rights as natural
persons do and that because money is not speech, limits on political spending will
promote the goals of the First Amendment by ensuring that all citizens, regardless of
wealth, have an opportunity to have their political views heard.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Dubuque hereby includes in its Federal
Legislative Agenda support for efforts to pass an Amendment to the United States
Constitution related to campaign finance reform and ending the false doctrine of
corporate constitutional rights and, by sending a copy of this resolution to each federal
legislator representing the City of Dubuque, respectfully urges Iowa's Congressional
delegation to prioritize congressional proposal of an amendment to the United States
Constitution addressing the threats to representative government identified in this
resolution so that the states may ratify it.
Passed, approved and adopted this 3rd day of February, 2014.
Attest:
4101tiril
Kevi S. Firnstahl, CM, ity Clerk
Roy D. Buol, Mayor.