Freedom: Corporations aren’t people

12:00 PM

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com Staff Writer

FREEDOM A majority of residents at the annual Town Meeting on Saturday expressed their dissatisfaction with corporate funding of political campaigns when they took a non-binding vote in support of abolishing corporate personhood.

The town will now send a letter to President Barack Obama and Maines congressional delegates to urge them to amend the U.S. Constitution to state that corporations do not have the same rights as people. The ultimate goal is to require corporations to disclose their contributions to political campaigns, events and advertisements.

About 65 people attended the meeting at Dirigo Grange, but not all people supported the resolution. Scott Holmes was one of several people who spoke against it.

To amend the Constitution doesnt sit well with me, he said. I think it should stay the way it is.

Sarah Bicknell, a Unity College student who lives in Freedom, organized the petition to bring the measure to a vote at the Town Meeting.

She said her effort was largely a reaction to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the government may not limit corporations political spending. The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money, without disclosure, on campaigns. Resident Doug Van Horn argued in response to Holmes that the Constitution has been amended before.

The Supreme Court has the right to change our Constitution, and it has done that in this particular case. We are asking essentially to ... counteract what the Supreme Court has done, he said. Resident Martha Story-Foisy argued in favor of the resolution, saying it would send a message that we dont like whats happening as far as these corporations getting involved in our election process and really, in some cases, buying elections.

First Selectman Ron Price said that while the vote was non-binding, he didnt like the idea of the whole town making a political statement. And he would have preferred a private vote at the polls, he said.

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Freedom: Corporations aren’t people