THE CITY OF POINT ARENA, CA CITY COUNCIL has, by a vote of 4 to 1, approved a resolution that says in part:

"The City of Point Arena agrees with Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in his 1938 opinion in which he stated, "I do not believe the word 'person' in the 14th Amendment includes corporations."

"Be it further resolved that:

"The City of Point Arena shall encourage public discussion on the role of corporations in public life and urge other cities to foster similar public discussion."

Here is one of the arguments made to support the resolution:

"The one pervading purpose" [of the 14th Amendment] "was the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly-made freeman and citizen from the oppression of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him." That is exactly what Justice Miller said in 1873 in one of the first Supreme Court opinions to rule on the 14th Amendment.

How strange it is then that in 1886 a Supreme Court opinion would establish the principle that the 14th Amendment makes Corporations "persons" for purposes of Constitutional interpretation. The opinion gives no guidance to the reason for this principle. The question was not even argued since Chief Justice Waite announced at oral argument that "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does." 

This opinion has outraged some of the finest legal minds to serve on the Supreme Court. Later Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas both wrote opinions saying that this interpretation of corporations as persons should be reversed.

"I do not believe that the word 'person' in the Fourteenth Amendment includes corporations." -- Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black (1938)

"There was no history, logic, or reason given to support that view nor was the result so obvious that exposition was unnecessary." --William O.Douglas (1949)

A corporation is not a person. It is an artificial entity created by "we the people" and given our recognition through our duly elected state governments. We the people wrote the Constitution and declared in it people's natural rights. 

Corporations are given no rights under the US Constitution and clearly the founding fathers did not intend for corporations to be considered people. Corporate control and tyranny were some of the complaints that sparked the revolution. Most of our original states started out as colonies ruled by corporations chartered by the English king. Not only did our early rebels understand that corporate rule amounted to martial law, they understood that corporations served to protect only an elite of propertied individuals. The struggle in the colonies against corporate rule lasted over 100 years, up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

Having declared that corporations possess the civil and political rights of persons, Supreme Court justices have bestowed free speech for lobbying and propaganda. And since these justices have declared money a form of speech [another questionable court decision] corporations can buy our elections and prevent the people from defining our elections.

In the early 1800's corporations were required to "serve the public good." It was illegal for their object to be "merely private or selfish." For-profit corporations now have the legal obligation to maximize profits for their shareholders and managers. Even if the individual directors or stockholders wanted to serve the public good, they could not.

Our revolutionary ancestors issued corporate charters for a limited number of years, spelled out rules the corporations had to follow, and held business owners liable for harms and injuries. Corporations are now immortal and can grow forever virtually unchecked. They possess limited liability, which enables the people who make and profit from decisions to avoid responsibility for their actions. Corporations also lobbied for and received tax benefits to lighten their social burden.

Today, corporations enjoy privileges that real people do not. Corporations have become "super people." Corporations have effectively become our governors.

Today workers must check their personhood and natural rights at the gate as they enter corporate property. But the corporation remains a person and asserts its power wherever it goes... .

There has been no real challenge to corporate power for 100 years. Revoking corporate personhood is a logical and vital step in the process of controlling our country and community . . .

To halt corporate harm, we citizens must redefine the corporation, reclaim our sovereign authority over the corporation, and revoke the illegitimate claim of corporate personhood. Only then can we reclaim authority over ourselves and our communities. We must order corporations out of the body politic, out of our elections, our schools, our lawmaking, and our courts. 

May 8, 2000 | via Ken Adams