NEW YORK, NY (01/04/2012)(readMedia)-- Today Common Cause/NY Executive Director, Susan Lerner, applauded the passage of City Council Resolution 1172-2011 which opposes the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution in Citizens United regarding the constitutional rights of corporations. The resolution calls on Congress to begin the process of amending the Constitution to provide that corporations are not entitled to the entirety of protections or "rights" of natural persons, specifically so that the expenditure of corporate money to influence the electoral process is no longer a form of constitutionally protected speech.

"Today the biggest city in the nation exercised common sense against the Supreme Court's misguided characterization of corporate personhood, and declared that corporations are not tantamount to the 8 million people who live and breathe here. Our democracy shouldn't be warped by corporate influence which far exceeds the resources of average Americans," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY