Democracy Convention

Democracy is coming... to the U.S.A.

On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Citizens United v. FEC. That same day, MovetoAmend.org went live, and within two days nearly 30,000 people had signed the Motion to Amend the U.S. Constitution to make clear that corporations are not persons entitled to constitutional protection, that money is not speech, and also to protect the right to vote and have one’s vote counted and to establish that federal and state laws establish a floor and not a ceiling for human rights, civil rights, and environmental protections enacted by local governments. Move to Amend was founded by a coalition of longtime partners, and initially anchored by several key groups including Democracy Unlimited, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Alliance for Democracy, together with Liberty Tree, which provided Move to Amend’s initial website, staffing, and much of its initial financing. 

Liberty Tree organized the first mass protest against Citizens United on February 6, 2010, as well as the first national conference post Citizens United, We the Corporations? Life and Law After Citizens United, at the University of Wisconsin School of Law on April 16th. Today, Move to Amend is an independent 501(c)3 organization based in Sacramento, California, with local affiliates in most of the country. It is the nation’s largest and most grassroots organization working to overturn Citizens United v. FEC through constitutional reform. 

In June of 2010, Liberty Tree joined with its partners in Move to Amend in organizing the Democracy Track at the second U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan.