Mission Statement

“We the people of the United States,” the first words of the US Constitution, make it clear that our government was established to serve the people. Our Constitution contains checks and balances in order to prevent abuses of power, and our Bill of Rights limits government in order to guarantee people certain fundamental rights and liberties.

Today our country is crippled by a so-called "Global War on Terror," which undermines those crucial limits on power that our Constitution promises. In the name of this "war," Congress has largely abdicated its constitutionally-mandated role to check executive power and to protect our rights. Congress's complicity has enabled violations of our Constitution including warrantless surveillance, torture, indefinite detention, and preemptive war.

What can we do?

Fighting against just one violation at a time fragments our movement. It is time to unite to face the common source of these problems. To do this, we need to make our elected representatives more beholden to their constituents and to their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution than to the power structure in Washington, DC.

The People's Campaign for the Constitution calls forth the power of the people to reassert our Constitution by joining forces around common beliefs and speaking to our elected representatives with a more powerful voice.

Goals of the PCC

The goals of the People’s Campaign for the Constitution are as follows:

In 2008:

• Use the general election cycle, when politicians are in closest contact with the electorate, as an opportunity for the grassroots to bring Bill of Rights issues into a sharp national focus.
• Strengthen existing local coalitions formed to pass civil liberties resolutions, and use their resolutions to call for long-awaited restoration of liberties and human rights
• Form new coalitions capable of holding public officials accountable for restoring Bill of Rights protections for the 2008 election year and beyond
• Harness the collective potential of people who are already working on aspects of the so-called “war on terror” and of the many more who would take action if they saw the potential for making positive change.
• Raise people’s expectations that legislators must serve at the pleasure of the governed, as the Constitution promises.

Use 2009 as an opportunity for the grassroots to follow up with those elected and to track their progress on the community’s demands, including demands for changes on USA PATRIOT Act sections that will sunset at the end of 2009.

Note: Sunsets apply to Section 215 business records, roving wiretaps, and “lone wolf” surveillance.