The story of how corporations took the full rights of legal
persons in one of the great perverse tragedies in legal history. Corporations
have worked the courts mercilessly since 1819 to take a wide variety of
constitutional rights that were designed to cover only people. For example, the Fourteenth Amendment was
passed in 1868 to make sure all citizens, particularly freed slaves and people
of color, had full rights. There was no mention
of protecting corporations. But corporations jumped on this opportunity
resulting in a questionable Supreme Court decision that granted them legal
personhood. At roughly the same time,
the Supreme Court approved "separate but equal" racial segregation. Thus in thirty years, African Americans lost
their legal personhood, while corporations acquired theirs.
Corporations now claim: 1st amendment free speech
rights to advertise and influence elections: 4th amendment search
and seizure rights to resist subpoenas and challenges to their criminal actions;
5th amendment rights to due process; 14th amendment
rights to due process where corporations took the rights of former slaves and
used them for corporate protection; plus rights under the Commerce and
Contracts clauses of the constitution.
The most recent corporate judicial takeover of
constitutional rights is the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United
versus the Federal Election Commission. The
court ruled that corporations are protected by the First Amendment so they can
use their money to influence elections.
Because of the bad Supreme Court decisions, it takes a
constitutional amendment by the people to change the laws back. An amendment requires two-thirds of both
houses of Congress to agree then three-quarters of the states must vote to
ratify. This will take real work. But despite the growing size and unrestricted
power of corporations, people are fighting back.
Dozens of groups are working to reverse Citizens United and
restore limits on corporate election advocacy.
In January 2011, groups delivered petitions signed by over 750,000
people calling on Congress to amend the Constitution and reverse the decision. More than 350 local events were held in late
January 2012 to challenge the Citizens United decision.
Groups challenging this injustice include Code Pink, Common
Cause, Free Speech for People, Moveon.org, Move to Amend, National Lawyers
Guild, POCLAD, Public Citizen, People for American Way, The Center for Media
and Democracy, and Women's League for Peace and Freedom.
Many groups are asking for a broad constitutional amendment
that makes it clear that corporations are not people and should not be given
any constitutional rights. Representatives
Ted Deutsch of Florida, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Senator Bernie
Sanders of Vermont have sponsored bills in Congress to start the process for a
constitutional amendment to make it clear that corporations are not people, are
not entitled to the rights of people, and cannot contribute to political
campaigns.
There are also many energetic actions at the state
level. People for the American Way list organizational
efforts in nearly all 50 states to end corporate influence in elections or
amend the constitution.
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