Hawaii Fights Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United Decision

Source: Buzzflash

Some good things are happening in the Aloha state. In addition to House Speaker Joe Souki’s push to legalize recreational use of marijuana for “revenues-equitably” after Washington and Colorado voters passed ballot measures to do the same, House Judiciary Chairman Karl Rhoads introduced a bill to limit free-speech protections to “natural persons”.

At first glance, limiting free-speech sounds suspicious, but the key phrase here is “natural persons.” From the time corporations were ruled by the Supreme Court as “persons” corporate entities have been given all the rights entitled to individuals; and yet, we all know that corporations are not persons.

Thus when the Supreme Court Justices ruled in favor of Citizens United, it paved the way for a flood of advertisements during political campaigns from corporations and other entities—all in the name of “free speech,” as though these corporate entities were individuals, which is the equivalent of calling Wal-Mart or Bank of America individuals with constitutional rights.

Citizens United really has nothing whatsoever to do with free speech and everything to do with corrupting politicians and elected officials with their bondage of money and tight strings to do as the corporate masters demand, and to ignore what is morally and ethically right for the people and for the preservation of our environment. Think of Big Oil and Big Pharma as merely a couple examples of Big corrupt campaign money to politicians and you get the picture.

The measure would amend the state Constitution’s counterpart to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment free-speech protections to cover only “natural persons.” The purpose, according to the bill, is not to cover “a business entity.”

As reported in the Star Advertiser, Rhoads said that he introduced the bill because of what he called the “terrible decision” in the Citizens United case. It is a “protest” vote to let the Justices and D.C. elitists know that Hawaii doesn’t agree with the Court’s Citizens United decision.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17780-hawaii-fights-supreme-court-s-2010-citizens-united-decision