We don’t want this
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, decided in the US Supreme Court in 2010, struck down laws that tried to control money given by corporations and other artificial entities in elections. The ruling essentially gave corporations free speech rights. It conferred personhood under the law for corporations. There are currently cases in the courts that could give religious freedom rights to corporations and remove any limits on the amount of money individuals could spend on election campaigns. Giving human rights to corporations or saying that money equals free speech is bad for actual humans. The Move to Amend group is working to change this terrible trend toward Corporate personhood.
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On Tuesday December 10th, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) released a report titled ‘The IHEU Freedom of Thought Report 2013′ which focused specifically on the rights, legal status, and discrimination against Humanists, atheists and the non-religious in every country in the world. While the worse result of being a freethinker could be death, there was some kind of discrimination in most countries including the United States.
One issue the Secular Coalition of America (SCA) is working on in Washington DC is secular tax reform. Churches and other religious groups have advantages under the current tax code that other nonprofits don’t. The SCA would like to see the rules applied equally to all tax exempt groups. You can help out get the message to Congress.
The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) gave a report to the United Nations detailing that Atheists, humanists, freethinkers and other non-religious people are discriminated against around the world, where expression of their views is often criminalized and subject to capital punishment. The report was in response to efforts by Islamic countries to obtain a world ban on “defamation of religion”. Freedom of Religion and freedom of expression shouldn’t be in conflict.
