Rush Township, PA abolish corporate constitutional rights

Rush Township, Penn, abolishes corporate constitutional rights

Type: Ordinance

Status: Adopted

Date: September 27, 2006

Search Strings: corporate constitutional rights, corporate personhood, democracy

Summary: Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (September 28) – On September 27th, 2006, the Board of Supervisors for Rush Township in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, passed a law declaring that sludge and dredge corporations possess no constitutional “rights” within the community. Rush thus becomes the sixth local government in the country to abolish the illegitimate “rights” and legal privileges claimed by corporations. Corporate managers in Pennsylvania and around the nation effortlessly wield those constitutional “rights” and legal privileges to dictate corporate values and nullify local laws. The Rush Township law also (1) bans corporations from engaging in the land application of sludge within the Township; (2) recognizes that ecosystems in Rush possess enforceable rights against corporations; (3) asserts that corporations doing business in Rush will henceforth be treated as “state actors” under the law, and thus, be required to respect the rights of people and natural communities within the Township; and (4) establishes that Rush residents can bring lawsuits to vindicate not only their own civil rights, but also the newly-mandated rights of Nature. In the ordinance, the Township Board of Supervisors declared that if state and federal agencies – or corporate managers – attempt to invalidate the ordinance, a Township-wide public meeting would be hosted to determine additional steps to expand local control and self-governance within the Township.

More information: http://www.celdf.org