WHEREAS, Seattle has a history of proven commitment to clean elections, transparency in election financing and lobbying, and maintains a national model of election oversight through the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commissions; and

WHEREAS, in a 2010 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court overturned some provisions of the federal Campaign Reform Act enacted in 2002, and ruled that corporate entities have the same rights as persons to unrestricted spending on political speech; and

WHEREAS, in reaching its decision, a majority of the Supreme Court interpreted the First Amendment of the Constitution to afford corporations the same free speech protections as natural persons; and

WHEREAS, the Court's decision in effect allows unlimited corporate spending to influence campaigns, elections, lawmaking and public policy decisions; and

WHEREAS, in the two years since the ruling, there has been tremendous growth in contributions and spending by super political action committees for media ads and related independent electioneering activities; and

WHEREAS, the Court's decision in the case of Citizens United v. F.E.C. severely restricts the ability of federal, state and local governments like Seattle to enact reasonable campaign finance reforms and regulations regarding corporate political activity; and;

WHEREAS, several proposed amendments to the Constitution have recently been introduced in Congress that would allow governments to regulate the raising and spending of money by corporations to influence elections; and;

WHEREAS, the people of the United States have previously used the constitutional amendment process to correct decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that are widely deemed to be egregious or wrongly decided or significantly out-of-step with the prevailing values of the populace; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THAT:

Section 1. The City of Seattle calls on the the United States Congress to initiate steps to amend the United States Constitution with provisions that clearly state that:

(1) Corporations are not human beings, and only human beings are endowed with Constitutional rights.

(2) Contributions and expenditures for political purposes are not Constitutionally-protected speech, and that, therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

(3) Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate contributions and expenditures for campaigns and ballot measures, and to require public disclosure of the sources of such contributions and expenditures.

Adopted by the City Council the ____ day of ____________________, 2012, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this________ day

of ______________________, 2012.

_________________________________

President ___________of the City Council

Filed by me this ____ day of ________________________, 2012.

____________________________________

Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk

(Seal)

Elaine Ko/lb PoliticalSpendingReso April 30, 2012 Version #2a