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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 03:26 PM
Original message
Fighting Corporate Personhood and Restoring Citizen Control over Corporations - A Resource Guide
Edited on Wed Sep-02-09 03:28 PM by marmar
"... it's ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They're totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There's about as much freedom as under Stalinism."

- Noam Chomsky




From ReclaimDemocracy:


NOTE: You can link to any of the documents, court cases, organizations or case studies listed below from this page: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood /


Introduction to Corporate Personhood

Our Bill of Rights was the result of tremendous efforts to institutionalize and protect the rights of human beings. It strengthened the premise of our Constitution: that the people are the root of all power and authority for government. This vision has made our Constitution and government a model emulated in many nations.

But corporate lawyers (acting as both attorneys and judges) subverted our Bill of Rights in the late 1800's by establishing the doctrine of "corporate personhood" -- the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.

We believe that corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges we willfully grant them. Granting corporations the status of legal "persons" effectively rewrites the Constitution to serve corporate interests as though they were human interests. Ultimately, the doctrine of granting constitutional rights to corporations gives a thing illegitimate privilege and power that undermines our freedom and authority as citizens. While corporations are setting the agenda on issues in our Congress and courts, We the People are not; for we can never speak as loudly with our own voices as corporations can with the unlimited amplification of money.

Read our draft constitutional amendment to revoke corporate constitutional "rights" and offer your thoughts.

Overviews

Our Hidden Corporate History
This overview of the rise of corporate power in the U.S. also is available as a 2 page flier (pdf), making a great handout.

Timeline of Personhood Rights and Powers
by Jan Edwards (pdf)

Current Controversies Relating to Corporate Personhood
A Blow Against the Corporate Empire
A California county blazes a trail that should inspire action in many other communities.

Wal-Mart Lawyers Claim Class-Action Suit Would Violate Corporation's "Civil Rights"

Democracy v Corporate "Free Speech" -- Corrupting the Ballot Initiative Process

Digging Deeper: Articles, Briefs & Books
Recommended Articles


The Hijacking of the 14th Amendment by Doug Hammerstrom (pdf)

Santa Clara Blues by William Meyers (pdf). Also in HTML format

Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation by Richard Grossman and Frank Adams

Personalizing the Impersonal: Corporations and the Bill of Rights by Carl Mayer.
Recommended for lawyers or those interested in a detailed legal history (70 pp html).

When Silence is Not Golden: Negative Corporate Free Speech by Dean Ritz

Abolish Corporate Personhood by Molly Morgan and Jan Edwards.

The PBS program NOW compiled some useful resources on the topic for this 2005 episode.

Recommended Books

The People's Business by Charlie Cray and Lee Drutman

Gangs of America by Ted Nace

Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann

When Corporations Rule the World by David Korten

The Transformation of American Law 1870-1960 by Morton Horwitz (for those interested in detailed legal background). See also Volume 1: 1780-1860.

Significant U.S. Court Cases in the Evolution of Corporate Personhood / Commercial Free Speech

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Corporate charters are ruled to have constitutional protection.

Munn v. State of Illinois (1876)
Property cannot be used to unduly expropriate wealth from a community (later reversed).

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886)
The substance of this case (a tax dispute) is of little significance, but this fateful case subsequently was cited as precedent for granting corporations constitutional rights. Several articles linked above detail how this happened.

Noble v. Union River Logging Railroad Company (1893)
A corporation first successfully claims Bill of Rights protection (5th Amendment)

Lochner v. New York (1905)
States cannot interfere with "private contracts" between workers and corporation -- marks the ascension of "substantive due process."

Liggett v. Lee (1933)
Chain store taxes prohibited as violation of corporations' "due process" rights.

Ross v. Bernhard (1970)
7th Amendment right (jury trial) granted to corporations.

U.S. v. Martin Linen Supply (1976)
A corporation successfully claims 5th Amendment protection against double jeopardy.

Marshall v. Barlow (1978)
The Court creates 4th Amendment protection for corporations -- federal inspectors must obtain a search warrant for a safety inspection on corporate property.

First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978)
Struck down a Massachusetts law that banned corporate spending to influence state ballot initiatives, even spending by corporate political action committees. Spending money to influence politics is now a corporate "right." Justice Rehnquist's dissent is a recommended read.
Related articles: * Ballot Initiatives Hijacked * Behind the Powell Memo

Central Hudson Gas v. Public Service Comm. of NY (1980)
This oft-cited decision concerns a state ban on ads promoting electricity consumption.

Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990)
Upheld limits on corporate spending in elections.

Thompson v. Western States Medical Center (2002)

Nike v Kasky (2002)
Nike claims California cannot require factual accuracy of the corporation in its PR campaigns. California's Supreme Court disagreed. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case on appeal, then issued a non-ruling in 2003.

Campaigns to Revoke Corporate Free Speech

Nike v Kasky was one of the highest profile court cases to date regarding "corporate free speech." The case concluded with a settlement on September 12, 2003. We have preserved the large body of material we produced and collected relating to this case, which represents all side of the issue here. We soon will add a new, more general page focusing on commercial speech issues.

We used Kasky v. Nike to advance public understanding and legal arguments against granting corporations constitutional rights. Our work included filing a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, doing talk shows around the country, and confronting the ACLU on its support for corporate personhood at the expense of human freedom. Please read and endorse our sign-on letter to the ACLU, which urges their directors to reverse their advocacy of corporate personhood. This 3 page letter offers a more detailed argument than the above flyer and links to our endorsement form to urge the ACLU to change position. We hope to resume actively campaigning to change the ACLU from within when funding allows.

In summer, 2004, we initiated a new campaign aimed at revoking corporate "rights" to influence ballot initiatives and referenda (related article). We'll publish much more on this front in the months ahead.

Groups Challenging Corporate Personhood

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
has extensive information available as part of a study packet: Challenging Corporate Power

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
does notable work to revoke corporate power in Pennsylvania and is the source for two of the initiatives listed below

The Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy
helped inspire the work of many other organizations listed here, ours included

The Aurora Institute
educates and organizes on corporate power issues in Canada, where corporate legal history has closely matched that of the U.S.

The New Rules Project
serves as a clearinghouse for democracy-enhancing local and state legislation, much of it challenging corporate power

Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
works effectively at the community level in California

Redwood Coast Alliance for Democracy
has several informative articles and works on related issues in Northern California.

Initiatives Challenging Corporate "Rights"

Pennsylvania Township Passes Ordinance Rejecting Corporate "Rights" -- a First in U.S. Report on the Porter Township Ordinance

The Wayne Township Ordinance This successfully enacted legislation bars recidivist corporations from operating in the Township.

Corporate Personhood Ordinance Model legislation to revoke personhood locally

Non-binding resolutions have been passed in Point Arena and Arcata, CA and, most recently, in Berkeley, as a symbolic stand and educational tool.

Anti-corporate Farming Laws This Nebraska law is one of several such state laws denying corporate "rights" in agriculture.

Party Platform Planks Opposing Corporate Personhood In June 2004, Washington state's Democratic Party became the latest to officially oppose corporate personhood -- a tactic that lends itself to being used in almost any locale. Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Maine have passed similar policies.

Two New Jersey legislative bills would revoke corporate personhood within the state and ban corporate political spending. View either the first or second draft bill in pdf.

Other Websites of Note

Unequal Protection This website by Unequal Protection author Thom Hartmann includes model ordinances for every state which would eliminate Constitutional privileges for corporations within individual municipalities and another set to amend state constitutions.

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orpupilofnature57 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
1. Thats how you fight Fascism , the only obstacle is the 12%
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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 04:10 PM
Response to Original message
2. Great resource! I'm bookmarking it! Thanks for posting it!
The biggest, most anti-democratic, most dangerous example of corporate personhood-gone-wild is the corporate hijacking of our election vote counting system, with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by a handful of rightwing corporations, in all of our voting machines and central tabulators, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

The danger of stolen elections is obvious. What is not obvious is these corporations' assertion of the "right" to profit from our election system with 'TRADE SECRET' code, and the LOSS of our right to see how our votes have been counted. In the FL-13 case, Christine Jennings 'lost' the Congressional seat by only about 350 votes. During that vote counting, ES&S voting machines 'disappeared' 15,000 votes in Democratic areas. When Jennings took the matter to court and requested to review ES&S's 'TRADE SECRET' programming code--to try to find out what happened to those 15,000 votes--ES&S refused, and argued that their "right" to profit from the election system trumps the right of the voters to know how their votes were counted. And the judge agreed with ES&S!

A further horror to this story is that when Jennings then took the matter to Congress--the final arbiter of such disputes--the Democratic Congress buried the matter six feet deep. Figure that one out, hm? Our Democratic leaders' screaming silence about Puke corporations 'counting' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code and denying the American people the right to review that code.

What the hell is this private, SECRET code doing in our voting system?

Corporate private secret vote counting trumps public vote counting!

Want to know another horror? ES&S (a spinoff from Diebold) has, as its initial funder and major investor, rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals (among other things).

So it's not just private corporations that are counting all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code--it's private corporations with hair-raising connections to the most extreme fascist groups in the US.

We need to start there--with purging our voting system of corporate control. We will get nowhere on other issues of Corporate Rule until we do.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 04:51 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. De nada, mi amigo.
nt
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
4. Not exactly encouraging that this only has 6 Recs
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 04:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I post it every 3 months or so.....Probably a lot of people have seen it before.
nt
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pnorman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Rec.? Thanks for the reminder!
n/t

pnorman
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loudsue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-02-09 05:05 PM
Response to Original message
6. It is vital to the future of the globe that the United States takes the lead on
this issue to put corporations under the proper controls and ownerships. They have become dangerous, beyond measure, to our food supplies, our financial stability, global warming, our ability to rule ourselves.
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