The Jamestown Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution Monday night that condemned the concept of "corporate personhood."

 

The resolution called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to establish that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that the First Amendment does not protect unlimited political spending as free speech.

 

Boulder voters will have the chance to weigh in on a similar resolution, ballot issue 2H, in November. That ballot issue also asks Boulder residents to support a Constitutional amendment that makes it clear that corporations are not people and money does not equal free speech.

 

Both the Jamestown and Boulder measures are in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision last year, which removed limits on corporate and union spending on issue ads. The majority opinion in the 5-4 decision was based in part on the idea that corporations, legally, are people with the same First Amendment rights as individuals, and that money is a form of speech.

 

A national organization called Move to Amend is urging local governments to pass measures calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.