HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	49
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

URGING the United States Congress to pass and send to the States a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizen United VS. FEDERAL Election Commission.

     WHEREAS, the United States Constitution protects free speech and other fundamental rights for the people, not corporations; and

     WHEREAS, corporations are legal entities created by law; and

     WHEREAS, for the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has erroneously transformed the first amendment into a powerful tool for corporations seeking to evade and invalidate the laws meant to protect the people of this Nation; and

     WHEREAS, article V of the United States Constitution empowers and obligates the people and 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 republican self-government; and

     WHEREAS, the people and states of the United States of America have strengthened the nation and preserved liberty and equality for all by using the constitutional amendment process throughout our history, including in seven of the ten decades of the twentieth century, and including the reversal of seven erroneous Supreme Court decisions; and

     WHEREAS, this corporate misuse of the first amendment and the United States Constitution has reached an extreme conclusion in the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission; and

     WHEREAS, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission overturned a longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from spending corporate general treasury funds in governmental elections; and

WHEREAS, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission unleashed a torrent of corporate money in our political process unmatched by any prior campaign expenditure totals in United States history; and

     WHEREAS, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission purports to invalidate state laws and even state constitutional provisions separating corporate money from elections; and

     WHEREAS, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission presents a serious and direct threat to our republican democracy; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2012, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature urges the United States Congress to pass and send to the states a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission