We The People

About

We The People is a site in which people can create petitions with the hope of bringing issues to the White House's attention. During the Obama administration, if a petition gain enough signatures, the White House would respond to the petition with a statement. The Trump administration has not responded to any petitions since taking office, and shut the site down, allegedly to replace it with a new system that would supposedly save tax payers $1 million.

History

We The People launched on September 22nd, 2011 during Barack Obama's first term as President.^[1] The petition system did not allow for petitions on criminal affairs and other processes of the Federal Government. Under the Obama administration's rules, petitions needed to reach 150 signatures in 30 days to be searchable on the website, and needed to reach 100,000 signatures to merit a White House response (the original number was 5,000).

Shut Down

When Donald Trump was inaugurated, existing petitions were archived and made inactive. In the first year of Trump's administration, two petitions reached above 100,000 signatures, while some later ones did not show the amount of signatures. By November, sixteen petitions had reached the 100,000 signature threshold, but the Trump administration never responded to any petition. On December 19th, 2017, the Trump administration shut down the site,^[2] stating a different system would be implemented in late January of 2018.

Notable Petitions

Death Star

In November of 2012, a petition to build a Death Star, the powerful space station and weapon from the Star Wars series, was launched and reached the required number of signatures. The White House responded in good humor, saying that the cost to build a Death Star would be far too costly and take too much time, and insisted that the administration did not support the destruction of planets.

Send Justin Bieber to Canada

On January 23rd, 2014, a petition was created to send pop star Justin Bieber back to his home country of Canada after he was arrested in Miami.^[3] This met the required number of signatures to merit a White House response. The White House declined to comment, citing the site's policy of not commenting on criminal cases, and instead talked about the importance immigration reform.

Trump Taxes

Following Donald Trump's inauguration, a petition was created asking Trump to release his taxes, which he infamously has resisted doing. The petition reached over 1 million signatures, the first of its kind to do so. White House spokesperson Kellyanne Conway stated two days after Trump's inauguration that Trump would not release his tax returns. Another petition asked Trump to divest his business assets in a blind trust; Trump put his businesses in the hands of his sons. No comment was ever made on these petitions.

Search Interest

External References