Florida Greens join Move to Amend and Occupy Wall Street in OCCUPY THE COURTS actions on January 20, 2012

Over 100 protests planned at federal courts nationwide on 2nd Anniversary of Citizens United v FEC Supreme Court ruling --  Florida actions include Ft. Myers, Ft. Pierce, Gainesville, Key West, Miami, Orlando, Pensacola, Tampa and West Palm Beach

 On Friday January 20, Occupy the Courts protests will be held at the U.S. Supreme Court  and over 100 courthouses across the U.S. This grassroots citizens' initiative will speak out against corporate personhood to mark the second anniversary of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and subvert our democratic process. 

Prof. Cornel West will join the Occupy the Courts protest in Gainesville. Dr. West and Tavis Smiley are in Gainesville on January 20 as part of their National Poverty Tour and Call to Conscience, which is being recorded for radio and television. West and Smiley will speak and lead a discussion at the Bob Graham Center for Public Policy at the University of Florida.

Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution mentions corporations, which were rare entities at our nation’s founding. But thanks to decades of rulings by Justices who molded the law to favor elite interests, corporations today are granted privileges that empower them to deny citizens the right to full self-governance.  Armed with these rights, corporations wield ever-increasing control over jobs, natural assets, elected officials, judges and the laws that are supposed to protect the public interest.

The Green Party of Florida is an affiliate of the national Move to Amend coalition, and Greens join with the organizers and supporters of OCCUPY THE COURTS in proposing that a Constitutional Amendment be adopted that overturns the Court-created legal doctrines falsely claiming that under the U.S. Constitution "Corporations are People" and “Money Equals Free Speech.”

 Greens strongly support the affirmation by Move to Amend that corporations are not persons, and they possess only the privileges citizens and their elected representatives explicitly grant them. 

For more information:

Move to Amend   www.movetoamend.org

MTA / Occupy the Courts (with map of actions)  www.movetoamend.org/occupythecourts

List of endorsing organizations : http://movetoamend.org/organizations

Green Party of Florida   www.GPFL.org

Green Party of the U.S.   www.gp.org