Move to Amend leaders thrilled with bill to overturn Citizens United

Cobb spoke to CL on Tuesday, days before he visits Tampa and St. Petersburg, about Move to Amend.

There are more than 263,000 people involved with Move to Amend who are calling for a constitutional amendment that would include two provisions. The first is that rights strictly belonging to human beings — and not to what Cobb calls government-created artificial legal entities such as corporations and limited liability companies — are recognized under the Constitution. The second would declare that political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.

Cobb said more than 25 different local governments across the country have put the "We The People" initiative in front of voters, and it has passed every time. He attributes his group's success to its nonpartisan message.

"We are the only group that says we must abolish all corporate constitutional rights, with no exceptions to any artificial entity, and make it clear that money is not speech, so that local, state or federal government agencies have the authority to make campaign finance laws," he said.

Cobb said "every single reader of Creative Loafing has inherit, inalienable rights — free speech, the right to worship or not to worship, the right to assemble. You have the right to petition the government. You have all these rights, but any law that tries to infringe on those rights is illegitimate by definition, and it's inappropriate to say that the corporation form somehow has these constitutional rights."

David Cobb will speak in Ybor City at the Roosevelt 2.0 (812 N. 15th St.) on Sunday, Feb. 17, at 6 p.m. On Monday he'll be in St. Petersburg at the Universalist Unitarian Church (719 Arlington Ave N) at 7 p.m.

CL will post more on our interview with David Cobb in the next 24 hours.