Support amendment: abolish corporate personhood, money as speech

As Introduced

136th
General Assembly

Regular
Session
S. R. No. 93

2025-2026

Senators
Smith, Antonio

Cosponsors:
Senators Craig, DeMora, Hicks-Hudson, Ingram

A
R E S O L U T I O N

To
call on legislators at the state and federal level and other
communities and jurisdictions to support an amendment to the United
States Constitution that would abolish corporate personhood and the
doctrine of money as speech.

BE
IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

WHEREAS,
Government of, by, and for the people has long been a cherished
American value, and We the People's inalienable right of
self-government is guaranteed in the United States Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence; and

WHEREAS,
Free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective
self-governance; and

WHEREAS,
Persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential
needs include clean water and safe and secure food; and

WHEREAS,
Corporations are entirely human-made legal entities created by
express permission of We the People and our government; and

WHEREAS,
Corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist simultaneously in
many nations, need only profit for survival, and exist solely through
the legal charter imposed by the government of We the People; and

WHEREAS,
The great wealth of large corporations allows them to wield coercive
force of law to overpower human beings and communities, thus denying
We the People's exercise of our constitutional rights; and

WHEREAS,
Corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution, and We the People
have never granted constitutional rights to corporations, nor have we
decreed that corporations have authority that exceeds the authority
of We the People of the United States; and

WHEREAS,
Interpretation of the United States Constitution by appointed Supreme
Court justices to include corporations in the term "persons"
has long denied We the People's exercise of self-governance by
endowing corporations with constitutional protections intended for We
the People; and

WHEREAS,
The judicial bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations
can usurp basic human and constitutional rights guaranteed to human
persons, and also empowers corporations to sue municipal and state
governments for adopting laws that violate "corporate rights,"
even when those laws serve to protect and defend the rights of human
persons and communities; and

WHEREAS,
Corporations are not and never have been human beings, and therefore
are rightfully subservient to human beings and governments as our
legal creations; and

WHEREAS,
The recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in
Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission
,
558 U.S. 310 (2010), which rolled back the legal limits on spending
in the electoral process, creates an unequal playing field and allows
unlimited spending by wealthy individuals, corporations, and other
entities to influence elections, candidate selection, and policy
decisions and to sway votes and compels elected officials to divert
their attention from the People's business or even to vote against
the interest of their human constituents in order to ensure
competitive campaign funds for their own reelection; and

WHEREAS,
The judicial interpretation that construes spending money in
political campaigns as speech is contrary to the notion of one
person, one vote and allows those with the most money to have an
unfair advantage in a political system that should ensure that all
citizens have equal access to the political process and an equal
ability to influence the outcome of elections; and

WHEREAS,
Money is property, not speech; and

WHEREAS,
Large corporations own most of America's mass media and use that
media as a megaphone to express loudly their political agenda and to
convince Americans that their primary role is that of consumers,
rather than sovereign citizens with rights and responsibilities
within our democracy; and

WHEREAS,
Tens of thousands of people and municipalities across the nation are
joining with the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to
the United States Constitution to abolish corporate personhood and
the doctrine of money as speech; now therefore be it

RESOLVED,
That the Senate of the State of Ohio calls on legislators at the
state and federal levels to join the tens of thousands of citizens,
grassroots organizations, and local governments across the country in
the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to the United
States Constitution to abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine
of money as speech and thereby return our democracy, our elections,
and our communities to America's human persons and thus claim our
sovereign right of self-governance; and be it further

RESOLVED,
That the Senate of the State of Ohio calls on other communities and
jurisdictions to join with it in this action by adopting similar
resolutions; and be it further

RESOLVED,
That the Senate of the State of Ohio supports education to increase
public awareness of the threats to our democracy posed by corporate
personhood and encourages lively discussion to build understanding
and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal actions to
democratically respond to these threats; and be it further

RESOLVED,
That the Clerk of the Senate transmit duly authenticated copies of
this resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the
State of Ohio and to Ohio's congressional delegation.