This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was originally published in the March 15, 2010 edition of Progressive Populist. Before running off trying to counter the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), we ought to sort out what this decision does and does not do. The Citizens United decision does make [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was originally published in the Spring 2009 edition of Synthesis/Regeneration, and was based on remarks made at Synthesis/Regeneration’s “Surviving Climate Change: Producing Less and Enjoying It More” Roundtable, in St. Louis, Missouri in June 2008. Working in tandem with a cooperative Supreme Court, corporate lawyers have insinuated themselves into [...]
Judicial Chronology of the gradual but steady inflation of corporate "rights" and destruction of community rights, through the establishment of a two-tiered system of incorporation law establishing the relationships between legislatures, their equals (business corporations) and their subordinates (municipal corporations, whose inhabitants are "tenants" with no decision-making authority separate from the state legislature). An original [...]
This short article on the history and background of devolution and preemption was published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) on, November 25th, 2008. What level of government should exercise what kinds of authority? That question has been vigorously debated throughout U.S. history. Indeed, the U.S. Constitution itself represented a radical departure from the [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was originally published in the August 1, 2008 edition of Progressive Populist. In the Spring of 2008, tens of thousands of South Koreans held candlelight vigils every day for over a month to protest being forced to accept beef from the United States. The US government claims that barring our [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was originally published in the Spring 2008 edition of By What Authority, and was adapted from her book, Gaveling Down the Rabble. What’s pink, French, and unconstitutional? Hint: The story of this early “frankenfood” provides an advance script for the current global “free trade” frenzy. Over a century ago, [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was published in the January 1, 2008 edition of Progressive Populist. How to be sure that toy under the holiday tree has no lead paint? With only a month of shopping days remaining, the public depends–more than at any other time–on our federal regulatory agencies’ ability to protect us [...]
This article by Richard Grossman was originally published in 2004. Invoking the people's constitutional maxim: "Where there is harm, there must be remedy," Friends and Residents of St. Thomas Township (FROST) have turned a conventional defense against a giant quarry-asphalt-cement corporation into a confrontation over corporate claims to constitutional rights. FROST members live in South-Central [...]
On June 4, 2003, Bill Moyers gave a major speech at the Take Back America Conference in Washington DC, titled "This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On." The conference was sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future. Just 20 days later, on June 24, 2003, Richard Grossman published a scathing critique of Moyers' [...]
This article by Doug Hammerstrom was published in the Winter 2002 edition of By What Authority, the newsletter of Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Doug is an activist attorney living in Gualala, California. We who seek to build democracy must not be bound by the false assertion that the rule of law is democratic. A [...]
