City of Pittsburgh - File #: 2011-2390

• File #: 2011-2390
• Version: 1
• Type: Will of Council
• Status: Adopted
• File created: 12/30/2011
• In control: City Council
• Final action: 12/30/2011
• Enactment date: 12/30/2011
• Enactment #: 866
• Title: NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby calls on our elected officials join the tens of thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations and local governments across the country in the Move to Amend campaign to call for an Amendment to the Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood and return our democracy, our elections, our communities back to America's human persons and to thus reclaim our sovereign right to self-governance. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh calls on other communities and jurisdictions to join with us in this action by passing similar Resolutions. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh supports education to increase public awareness of the threats to our democracy posed by Corporate Personhood, and encourages lively discussion to build understanding and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal actions to democratically respond to these threats.
• Sponsors: Douglas Shields, All Members
• Indexes: PROCLAMATION - MR. SHIELDS

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
12/30/2011	1	City Council	Adopted	Pass

Body
WHEREAS, government of, by, and for the people has long been a cherished American value, and We The People's fundamental and inalienable right to self-govern, and thereby secure rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and;
WHEREAS, free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-governance, and;
WHEREAS, persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential needs include clean air, clean water, safe and secure food, and;
WHEREAS, corporations are entirely human-made legal fictions created by express permission of We The People and our government, and;
WHEREAS, corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist simultaneously in many nations at once, need only profit for survival, and exist soley through the legal charter imposed by the government of We The People, and;
WHEREAS, in addition to these advantages, the great wealth of large corporations allows them to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and communities, thus denying We The People's exercise of our Constitutional rights, and;
WHEREAS, corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution, and The People have never granted constitutional rights to corporations, nor have We decreed that corporations have authority that exceeds the authority of We The People of the United States, and;
WHEREAS, interpretation of the US Constitution by appointed Supreme Court justices to include corporations in the term 'persons' has long denied We The Peoples' exercise of self- governance by endowing corporations with Constitutional protections intended for We The People, and;
WHEREAS, the illegitimate judicial bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations usurps basic human and Constitutional rights guaranteed to human persons, and also empowers corporations to sue municipal and state governments for adopting laws that violate 'corporate rights' even w...