HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	282
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING CONGRESS TO PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES TO PERMIT CONGRESS AND THE STATES TO REGULATE THE EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS BY CORPORATIONS ENGAGING IN POLITICAL SPEECH.

     WHEREAS, free speech is a right exclusive to natural persons, recognized and protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States (U.S.); and

     WHEREAS, corporations are not natural persons, but rather legal entities granted conditional rights by society through the legislative deliberations of Congress and the States; and

     WHEREAS, the legislature of the State of Hawaii has grave concerns regarding the implications of the Supreme Court of the U.S.' decision in its five to four ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission; and

     WHEREAS, this decision threatens to invalidate the legislative deliberations of Congress and the States to restrict the influence of corporate power on the political system; and

     WHEREAS, the opinion of the four dissenting justices noted that corporations have certain privileges not enjoyed by natural persons, such as limited liability, perpetual life, and favorable treatment of their accumulation and distribution of assets, which financially enables them to overwhelm individual, natural persons in the political process; and

     WHEREAS, a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be overturned by legislation; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature respectfully requests that the U.S. Congress propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to clarify the distinction between the rights of natural persons and the rights of corporations, thereby preserving the power of Congress and the States to place limits on the ability of corporations to influence the outcome of elections through political expenditures; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certifies copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to Hawaii's Congressional Delegation.

Report Title: 

Congress; United States Constitutional Amendment