National Community Rights Network Finalizes 28th Amendment Proposal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
November 5, 2015 

The 12 member Board of Directors of the National Community Rights Network (NCRN) met at Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO in October for their annual meeting during which they approved a proposed 28th amendment to the US Constitution. 

Following historical movements that brought about the 13th, 15th and 19th amendments, this 28th constitutional amendment will liberate communities to make laws protecting health, safety and well-being free from state, federal and international pre-emption. Using the principles laid out by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence the amendment will codify our inalienable right to local community self-government free from regulatory commerce-based laws that provide only for corporate greed and the demise of sustainability.

“From the Declaration of Independence to the Articles of Confederation, securing the sovereignty of the people was the supreme goal. But from the adoption of the second constitution to the current day, the legislators, Supreme Court and the apathy of the people have taken us back past the tyranny we once took up arms against.” NCRN board president, Cindy Kudlik, stated, “This 28th amendment will codify the inalienable rights of the people to usurp and preempt corporate and political greed. For the sustainability of our communities, our lives, livelihoods and the very planet we live on we can no longer be complacent and accept the lies and distractions fed to us on a daily basis.”

The amendment was drafted by dedicated board members Lisa Kochheiser from Ohio, John Trallo from Pennsylvania and Tom Groover from Colorado with the expert assistance of Thomas Linzey, Esq., Founder and Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF).

The amendment is divided into 3 sections. The first defines the core principle of the Declaration of Independence to alter, amend, or abolish current systems of government if they are failing to protect the liberty or well-being of the people living within the communities served by these governments. Under the existing law, the Declaration is not viewed as enforceable. The second section recognizes that the people, communities, and ecosystems have rights, and prohibits activities that violate these rights. The third section protects the local laws drafted by the people from being overridden by state, federal, or international laws if they do not restrict or weaken constitutional rights or statutory protections for natural persons, communities, or nature. The full text of the amendment can be found at http://nationalcommunityrightsnetwork.org/national-constitutional-amendment/

The NCRN is committed to providing education, outreach, and support for the development of additional statewide Community Rights Networks. The organization is partnering with state and local Community Rights advocates to build a grassroots, people-driven, Community Rights Movement that will democratize and humanize decision-making at all levels. The NCRN mission is to assist our state Community Rights Networks to educate people across the country on local, community self-governance and community rights; secure the inalienable rights of all people, communities, and ecosystems through local self-governance; assert community rights to empower and liberate communities from state preemption and corporate harm; and advance those efforts toward state and federal constitutional change.

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Need for a Federal Amendment: Without a federally protected right of local, community self-government, rights-based laws adopted at the local and the state level can be overturned by preemptive federal laws and by federally-anchored corporate constitutional “rights.” Although the adoption of a federal constitutional amendment is still many years away, finalization of this amendment language allows the CRN’s to “frame” the conversation about the need for a federal amendment, and to capture support from both local and state rights-based organizing.

AMENDMENT XXVIII

SECTION. 1. All political power is inherent in the people, all government of right originates from the people, and the people have the right to alter, reform, or abolish their governmental system whenever they deem it necessary to protect their liberty and well-being; therefore, the people of the United States possess an inherent and inalienable right of local, community self-government in each county, city, town, township, village, parish, and borough.

SECTION. 2. That right shall include the power of the people, and the power of their governments, to enact and enforce local laws that protect health, safety, and welfare by recognizing or establishing rights of natural persons, their local communities, and nature; and by securing those rights using prohibitions and other means deemed necessary by the community, including measures to establish, define, alter, or eliminate competing rights, powers, privileges, immunities, or duties of corporations and other business entities operating, or seeking to operate, in the community.

SECTION. 3. Local laws adopted pursuant to section 2 shall not be subject to preemption or nullification by international law, federal law, or state law if those local laws do not restrict fundamental rights of natural persons, their local communities, or nature secured by local, state, or federal constitutions, or by international law; and if those local laws do not weaken protections for natural persons, their local communities, or nature provided by state, federal, or international law.

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PLAIN ENGLISH VERSION

New 28^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Recognizing a Federal Constitutional Right of Local, Community Self-Government

Section 1. Provides a broad declaration of the right of local, community self-government and transforms the core principle of the Declaration of Independence into binding, constitutional law. That core principle of the Declaration is the right to alter, amend, or abolish current systems of government if they are failing to protect the liberty or well-being of the people who live within communities served by those governments. Currently, under existing law, the Declaration of Independence is not viewed as binding or enforceable.

Section 2. Provides that the broad right established by the first section can be implemented through the adoption of municipal laws at the community level, by either the people of those communities or by their local governments. To be an exercise of that broad right, the laws must:

• Recognize or establish rights for individual people, the community as a whole, or for nature and ecosystems; and
• Prohibit activities or projects that would violate those rights.

Those laws may also limit corporate powers and “rights” as necessary to allow implementation and enforcement of the rights and prohibitions contained within the local law. The definition of “corporation” within this section includes all business entities.

Section 3. Protects local laws drafted in accordance with section 2 from being overridden by state, federal, or international law; and protects local laws drafted in accordance with section 2 from being overturned through the use of federal constitutional “rights”; BUT ONLY if the local laws:

• Do not attempt to restrict fundamental constitutional rights as recognized by the state and federal constitution (or international law), for rights belonging to natural persons, their communities, or to nature; and those local laws
• Do not attempt to weaken statutory protections for natural persons, their communities, or nature, as recognized by state, federal, or international law.