St. Croix County Referendum - Change the 1st Amendment? NO WAY!

Regarding the St. Croix County Referendum on the April 03 ballot, it is the position of the Cady Liberty Caucus that if anyone wishes to effectively get the money out of politics, what must first be done is to significantly reduce the power of government to affect businesses. Take that power out of government and there will no longer be any influence for businesses to purchase, and less opportunity for corruption.

Therefore, a constitutional amendment is really not needed. What is needed is for the federal government to operate within the enumerated powers already established by the constitution.



The referendum is as follows:

“Shall the County of St Croix adopt the following resolution? RESOLVED, that “We the People” of the County of St Croix, Wisconsin, seek to reclaim democracy from the expansion of corporate personhood rights and the corrupting influence of unregulated political contributions and spending. We stand with communities across the country to support passage of an amendment to the United States Constitution stating: 1. Only human beings are endowed with constitutional rights ─ not corporations, unions, nonprofits or other artificial entities, and 2. Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting speech.”

There is an excellent editorial in the Hudson Star Observer on this referendum "Viewpoint: We don't need a First Amendment change".

The wording of the referendum itself shows the author's ignorance of our system of government. It says "RESOLVED, that “We the People” of the County of St Croix, Wisconsin, seek to reclaim democracy from the expansion of corporate personhood rights and the corrupting influence of unregulated political contributions and spending." Someone should have stayed awake in civics class. Then, they would know that Section 4 of the US Constitution states "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government..." A "democracy", which is a tyranny of the majority over the minority, was soundly rejected by the founding fathers in favor of a representative republic.

The Cady Liberty Caucus is recommending a "NO" vote on this St. Croix County Referendum.