>>20375858 Meet the Uniform Law Commission, the Biggest Threat to Freedom that You’ve Never Heard of (PN)
Meet the Uniform Law Commission, the Biggest Threat to Freedom that You’ve Never Heard of
Feb. 6, 2024.1/2
For the second year in a row, apowerful, agenda-driven organization posing as a “nonpartisan” group of lawyersis at the center of important legislative battles raging in states across the country.
The group is called the Uniform Law Commission (ULC),and although the organization has clearly aligned itself inrecent years with far-left values, it remains one of the most influential forces in nearly every state capitol, including in the deepest-of-deep-red states.
Thus far in the 2024 legislative session, perhaps thebiggest fight involving the ULC centers around a bill proposed in South Dakota, where the state legislature and the governor’s office are controlled by Republicans. (Although it’s important to note that similar legislation will likely soon be offered in other states, and the ULC will almost certainly be the primary opponent in those states as well.)
Thebill in question is House Bill 1199. It seeks to change the Uniform Commercial Code in South Dakota so that investors in the state retain their property rights when they purchase securities, such as stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, and other investments.
Although most Americans don’t know it, under the current Uniform Commercial Code—a uniform state law that has been passed in every state, varying only slightly from one place to the next—investors who purchase securities, including through retirement accounts like 401(k) accounts, have no ownershipof the securities themselves. The broker—Fidelity, for example—retains ownership of most of the securities underlying the investments.
To make matters worse, theUCC also allows the broker to use investors’ investmentsas collateral in its own financial agreements, putting individuals’ wealth at risk in the event of a large financial crisis.
For example, if you buy 10 shares of Microsoft stock from a major broker—say, Merrill Lynch—either through a personal or retirement account, you might think you own those ten stocks of Microsoft. But you don’t.The broker—Merrill Lynch, in this case—owns the stock. You merely own a “security entitlement,” which is essentially a contract that provides a number of benefits but does not transfer ownership of the stock to you, even if you paid for the stock and broker fees in full.
The reason this is so important is because if you don’t own your investments, then your broker can use them in their own financial arrangements. As long as the economy hums along without any problems, you likely won’t notice that you don’t own your investments. Butif there is a major financial crash, you could end up being at risk oflosing much of your wealth and retirement savings.
This disturbing situation has been made possible by the Uniform Commercial Code, but it wasn’t always this way. The Uniform Commercial Code has been around for seventy years,but it was only in the 1990s that the changes were madeto allow brokers to seize control of customers’ property rights.
That’s where the Uniform Law Commission comes in. The ULC, an allegedly “non-partisan”group of powerful lawyers and academics, is the mastermind behind the Uniform Commercial Code. For more than one-hundred years, it has worked tirelessly to build strong relationships with Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike.
Although most voters have never heard of this powerful group, when the ULC tells lawmakers that changes are needed to the Uniform Commercial Code, a notoriously complex law,legislators simply do whatever the ULC wants, oftenwithout any understandingof what the ULC is advocating for.
(https://townhall.com/columnists/justinhaskins/2024/02/06/meet-the-uniform-law-commission-the-biggest-threat-to-freedom-that-youve-never-heard-of-n2634835