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A Proposed Amendment 28 - Putting Teeth In Corporate Behavior [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-25
I just read a diary in today’s KOS, “Delaware Democrats vote en-mass to support Musk’s Attack On The Courts” and interestingly it coincides with something I’ve recently been preparing for this site… an updated version of something I published here a couple of decades back. (Crap?! I really AM getting old...)
For consideration below is a proposed 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I’d previously built the framework of this idea while Dubya was still in the process of destroying the economy; obviously a few things have changed since then that have made a somewhat more drastic update to address specific issues necessary.
Below the proposed draft Amendment text is an overview summary which addresses each Article.
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Proposed Amendment 28:
Limitations on Corporate Influence for Public Governance
Article One
Incorporated Public or Private entities so organized for the purpose of operating a Commercial Enterprise, either for profit or not for profit, and being therunto subject to specific regulations that govern corporate conduct, scope and taxation thereof, are expressly NOT entitled to rights ascribed to sentient beings, nor are they granted Personhood for the purpose of obtaining rights and privileges equal to living persons.
Article Two
Legislation designed to co-mingle, consolidate or otherwise eliminate the distinction between Corporate Law and Civil Law is hereby prohibited. No statutes shall be established for the purpose of prosecutorial tort convenience which creates regulatory leverage for the purpose of partisan revisionism designed to mitigate the distinction between corporate law and civil law.
Article Three
Incorporated Public or Private entities so organized for the purpose of operating a Commercial Enterprise, either for profit or not for profit may not discriminate, withhold promotion, withhold compensation for services performed, penalize or use any other method of coercion to change or influence the political affiliation or political activities of employees, contractors or any entity associated with said enterprise, either to to the detriment or advantage thereof. Any act or corporate policy that either suggests or codifies any form of political coercion shall be in violation of this policy and subject to business license revocation and/or loss of tax-exempt status.
Article Four
Incorporated Public or Private entities so organized for the purpose of operating a Commercial Enterprise, either for profit or not for profit may NOT regard or consider contributions in the form of money, securities or material gifts in any form to political entities or persons affiliated therewith as an entitlement to “Free Speech”. Such gratuities shall be equally considered under Federal law as bribery through influence peddling and punishable under Federal racketeering statutes and/or loss of tax-exempt status.
Article Five
Incorporated Public or Private entities so organized for the purpose of operating a Commercial Enterprise, either for profit or not for profit are prohibited from marketing products and services in Federal buildings and on Federal property. Any attempt to sell, market or expose privately-developed goods and services in the places as described above shall be in violation of this policy and subject to business license revocation and/or loss of tax-exempt status. Permission to obtain exceptions in any form for any reason by elected officials to circumvent this statute shall expose themselves to Federal racketeering prosecution and censure.
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Overview of Individual Articles
Article One
Establishes the self-evident fact that corporations are not people. Corporations are created and established under a separate set of laws and regulations designed to impose rules on the operations and conduct of business practices and are therefore not entitled to personhood. Sentient individual human beings are governed under a separate set of laws which evolve through protecting and serving communities and individuals under the basic tenents of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Article Two
Recent attempts to legislatively blur or erase altogether the separate laws that regulate both persons and corporations are deliberately intended to eliminate protections that are Constitutionally granted to the People under the Bill of Rights. Article Two bans this practice.
Article Three
This article makes corporate vengeance against political suffrage and punitive retribution against individual people and associated contracting entities a violation of the law. Demonstrations or advocacy either For OR Against an issue or a party are prohibited, and any corporate attempt to use any physical or punitive means to coerce anyone or thing into acting on the behalf of a political agenda is a punishable offense.
It also makes political electioneering in tax-exempt places of worship a Federal crime.
Want to avoid trouble in the workplace or secular conflicts in church? Don’t talk about or spread emails about political issues, either from employers or employees. Simple.
Article Four
(I considered sub-titling this one the “Clarance Thomas Article”)
This Article addresses the scourge of lobbyist money, exhorbitant corporate campaign contributions, corporation-sponsored private flights to exotic vacation spots and other forms of elitist honoraria, yacht “fishing” junkets and similar “under-the-table, off the books” gifting of people in the political system of government. It’s time to call this practice for what it is: BRIBERY…. And this article provides serious consequences intended to prevent those who indulge in such behavior from “purchasing” governmental favor. If people want to reformulate a government with integrity, this is as good a place as any to start.
Article Five
Trump and his skeevy spawn set a new, sleezy precedent for commercial gamesmanship of elected Federal government behavior during his first Oval Office occupation by marketing Trump Bibles, Trump handbags, Trump fashions, Trump athletic shoes - even Trump GUITARS - all of it of poor quality sold at maximum markup, and all of it made in China. Go figure, from someone who hypes his “America First” jingoism. So now the object of Trump’s latest “bromance”, Elon Musk, has discovered his main cash cow, Tesla Motors is cratering because people aren’t particularly enamored with an unelected foreign agent who’s a not-so-closeted Nazi sycophant hell-bent on destroying the country’s government and drowning people’s quality of life in a shallow bathtub. So what does Trump do? He holds a Tesla Sales Event on the White House grounds for Musk. Never mind that until then Tesla has never seen the need to advertise anywhere in any media since its first public vehicle sales 17 years ago… but Trump - being the “brilliant businessman” that he things he is — declares that his fine reputation for business acumen, his personal endorsement and his boyish, infectious grin will drag Tesla’s business out of the ditch. (Hoo boy…I’m going to be sent straight to Hell for writing that…)
(Any other sane business owner being offered an endorsement by the likes of Trump would politely smile his face, slowly and quietly turn around and run like hell in the opposite direction.)
This should be a blatantly illegal violation of the Emollients Clause, but nobody seems to take any of that “law” stuff seriously these days. Article Five endeavors to take it seriously.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/25/2302741/-A-Proposed-Amendment-28-Putting-Teeth-In-Corporate-Behavior?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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