This Friday, Jan. 20, Springfield’s U.S District Courthouse will be the site of an Occupy The Courts demonstration against corporate personhood. A day before the two-year anniversary of the Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission (FEC) Supreme Court ruling that made it legal for corporations and wealthy individuals to make unlimited, unreported campaign contributions—as the spending of money is now considered an act of free speech—protesters will gather this weekend at regional courts nationwide and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. to state defiantly, “Corporations are not people! Money is not speech!”
“Why the courts?” asks David Cobb of Move To Amend, one of several groups organizing demonstrations this Friday. “That’s the scene of the crime. Corporate personhood, and money equals free speech, are court-created doctrines.”
While bills to amend the Constitution so as to invalidate this ruling have been proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others, the movement, at this point, is largely concerned with speaking out against Citizens United.
“No Congress, nor any president,” agrees nationally syndicated progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann, “has ever passed a law saying corporations are people. Only the Supreme Court has.”
While Hartmann will be joining Cobb in marching on the Supreme Court this Friday, he posted an “Occupy The Courts” video last November. “The judiciary branch, which was also supposed to be the least powerful branch of our government, has emerged as the most powerful branch,” states Hartmann. “As long as corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections, then we can replace Lady Justice’s blindfold with dollar bills in favor of the One Percent, over and over and over again.”
Hartmann’s concerns regarding court-mandated corporate personhood are shared by many, including local activist Dan McLeod, who is organizing the Valley’s Occupy The Courts demonstration in Springfield. “There is a deep reservoir of dissatisfaction, shared populist spirit, and hunger for democracy,” offers McLeod.
Long active in the global justice movement, McLeod met Cobb at a Trinity College event a few months ago, where Cobb was delivering a speech. “It’s very informal,” McLeod says of his role as Occupy The Courts organizer. “It’s an ‘If you build it, they will come’ scenario.”
Impressed with the amount of interest Springfield’s Occupy The Courts day has already received in its planning stages, McLeod is expecting “a spirited demonstration outside the federal courthouse.” There will be signs, a brass band, and street theater, as well as local speakers from various nonprofits; the details were still being confirmed at press time. “We’re expecting a hardy turnout,” says McLeod. “There’s going to be a lot of foot traffic.”
Events are scheduled in states and cities of all sizes, from Honolulu to Key West, San Antonio to Seattle.
“People are hip to this issue on their own,” says McLeod, noting that, in an ironic way, much of the credit for the vast level of support Occupy The Courts is seeing must be given to the Supreme Court. “They managed to anger people from across the political spectrum,” adds McLeod. “The Citizens United decision really poked a lot of already upset people in the eye.”
