Schiff needs to step up for resolution

As many know, in January 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations are people and as such have the free speech right to contribute unlimited amounts to election super-pacs.

In the nearly 2 1/2 years since the decision, an unprecedented amount of money has poured into our electoral process, resulting in a blatant expanse of special-interest money corrupting our democratic discourse. Countless citizens and politicians alike have expressed their concern and disgust with which this big money now controls the political and economic life of our country.

Our group, Occupy Democracy - Pasadena has collected more than 1,000 signatures expressing collective alarm at the ruling and demanding an immediate response from Rep. Adam Schiff and his office: the co-signing of HJR90, a joint resolution of Congress that would begin the process of enacting a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. To date, despite his “deep misgivings” about the court’s decision in the case, he has refused to co-sponsor the resolution.

In the congressman’s March newsletter survey, respondents overwhelmingly indicated their desire for his office’s full support of a constitutional amendment.

And yet, in a recent constituent mailing, he continued to stall and deliberate, claiming a “principled” bias against amending the Constitution for fear of stimulating a torrent of undesirable amendment proposals — a fear apparently not shared by the Founding Fathers (see the Bill of Rights).

And perhaps the greatest obfuscation has come in his Goldilocks response (either too hot or too cold) to the current amendment drafts. A remedy for this would simply be for him to draft his own bill; otherwise, to support HJR90 and amend it to make it better. Either way, by sitting and doing nothing, Schiff continues to aid and abet the corporations that are destroying our country.

We need a constitutional amendment, and we need leadership from our represented officials — now. With the new redistricting soon to be in effect, he can be assured of a much more progressive constituency in the new 28th Congressional District — at least the folks we have spoken to and leafleted in farmers markets in that district have indicated as much.

Maddie Gavel-Briggs

Pasadena