84R2773 RA-D
	By: Thompson of Harris	H.C.R. No. 49

	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Discarding a century of precedent, the United States
	Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
	swept aside long-standing campaign finance laws and cleared the way
	for unlimited corporate spending in elections; and
	WHEREAS, The five justices in the majority ruled that
	political spending is a form of protected speech under the First
	Amendment and that the government may not prevent corporations from
	giving money to support or oppose individual candidates for public
	office; the United States Constitution, however, does not mention
	corporations and endows only natural persons with the right to
	speak, assemble, and petition; there is no evidence that the
	framers of the constitution wished to extend to corporations the
	same rights as natural persons in the electoral context; and
	WHEREAS, Corporations, as the four dissenting judges noted in
	their opinion, are legal entities with no consciences, beliefs,
	feelings, thoughts, or desires; these entities help structure and
	facilitate the activities of human beings but are not themselves
	members of "We the People," by whom and for whom the constitution
	was established; the conditional rights of corporations are granted
	not by the constitution but rather through the legislative
	deliberations of Congress and the states; and
	WHEREAS, Unlike natural persons, corporations are granted
	certain privileges, including limited liability, perpetual life,
	and favorable treatment of the accumulation and distribution of
	assets, that enhance their ability to attract capital and to
	maximize the return on their shareholders' investments; yet these
	very privileges give corporations the financial capacity to drown
	out the individual voices of natural persons, which is why Congress
	and the states have rightly sought to restrict the influence of
	corporate power on our political system; moreover, corporations may
	be under the control of citizens of foreign countries who are
	ineligible to participate in our elections; and
	WHEREAS, Article V of the U.S. Constitution empowers the
	people and the states to correct egregious Supreme Court rulings by
	means of constitutional amendment, and 7 of the extant 27
	amendments were enacted for just such a purpose; the tide of
	corporate money that has been unleashed in the wake of Citizens
	United deeply threatens the free speech protections of individuals,
	and the amendment process must be used to reverse this erroneous and
	damaging decision; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas
	hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
	propose and submit to the states for ratification an amendment to
	the United States Constitution that overturns Citizens United v.
	Federal Election Commission, clearly establishing that the
	spending of money to influence elections shall not be construed as
	speech under the First Amendment and may be regulated by federal,
	state, or local government, and clarifying that only natural
	persons are protected by constitutional rights and that
	corporations, limited liability companies, and other artificial
	entities derive their rights through the legislative deliberations
	of Congress and the states and remain subject to regulation by the
	people through federal, state, or local law; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.