FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, February 1, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, February 1, 2017 Contact: Keyan Bliss, [email protected], (916) 318-8040

Move to Amend Rejects Neil Gorsuch and Any Nominee That Favors Corporate “Rights” Over Human Rights

Gorsuch Nomination Unacceptable Expansion of Corporate Rule by the Courts, Says National Democracy Coalition

(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Tuesday, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch as his pick for the Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. A member of the Federalist Society and widely seen as conservative jurist, Gorsuch serves as a federal judge on the Tenth Circuit. He was one of five judges who ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby which eventually led to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that a corporation could claim religious rights under the First Amendment to refuse providing insurance with birth control coverage to employees as required by the Affordable Care Act.

In response to Gorsuch’s nomination, Move to Amend National Director Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap stated: “At a time when 80% of the public demands a Supreme Court nominee who isn’t open to expanding the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money equals free speech, Donald Trump willfully ignores their concerns to nominate an appellate judge who believes a corporation, not its owners but the corporation itself, has religious beliefs and rights,” said Sopoci-Belknap. “The Hobby Lobby case was a classic case of judicial activism that adds to a growing pattern by Judge Gorsuch to twist constitutional law to support Big Money over the rights and wellbeing of ordinary people. We unequivocally reject this nominee to the Supreme Court and call on all people to write, call, and show up at Senate offices across the country to vote NO on Judge Gorsuch.”

Move to Amend is a rapidly growing national grassroots coalition of nearly 425,000 individuals and thousands of organizations working to pass a constitutional amendment to state that Constitutional rights belong to human beings only, not to corporations and other artificial entities, and that campaign spending is not a form of protected speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated. The group formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC ruling on January 21, 2010. Their “ We The People A mendment” was introduced in the US House of Representatives on January 30, 2017.

# # # Move to Amend representatives are available for interviews with the press about Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and the nomination of Neil Gorsuch. To arrange an interview, please contact [email protected] or call 916-318-8040.