Lawmakers demand details of a Mar-a-Lago dinner where Trump promised to ease regulations on the oil industry while asking executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    44·
    2 months ago

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    You can’t take away the last bit.

    • qantravon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      231·
      2 months ago

      Giving politicians money and then asking them to pass a bill favorable to you is not “petitioning the government,” it’s bribery. If corps and billionaires want to try to convince the politicians that they should pass the bills they want, they can still do that. There just shouldn’t be money changing hands.

    • TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zipEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      But a corporation is not entitled to that. Neither is money. People are.

      Allowing money to count as a petition is limiting the freedom of those without money then.