Campaign Finance Elections

Mass Pirates Endorse “We the People Act”

(Updated (Oct 18th 2015): we have since withdrawn support for the We The People Act.)

Dollars are not votes.

Last fall, the Massachusetts Pirate Party helped gather signatures for PassMassAmendment. This was an effort to amend the Massachusetts constitution, adding language that (1) Corporations are not People, and (2) Money is not speech. The effort gathered over seventeen thousand signatures; unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to trigger the amendment process.

Work on this issue continues, and the Massachusetts Pirate Party is proud to endorse the We the People Act. This legislation (H.D. 1988 in the house, Sponsored by Cory Atkins; S.D. 1538 in the senate, sponsored by Jamie Eldridge),

calls on Congress to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution asserting that

  • the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons, i.e. human individuals, only and
  • Congress and the states shall place limits on political contributions and expenditures to ensure that all citizens have access to the political process, and the spending of money to influence elections is not protected free speech under the First Amendment

The We the People Act “puts Massachusetts on record calling for a convention of the states for the purpose of proposing the amendment”, if congress fails to do so after six months.

The We the People Act has 62 co-sponsors in the MA house, and 19 in the Senate. If you don’t see your legislators listed, give them a call and ask them to support the We the People Act.

Three other states have called for a constitutional convention: California, Vermont, and Illinois. We hope to see Massachusetts become number four.

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