Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific
Railroad [1886]
Without any formal argument, the Court declares a corporation a person with
the same rights as human beings. They grant them the 14th amendment right
to equal protection that was supposed to protect recently emancipated Black
folks. Justices have since struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws
enacted to protect people from corporate harm because these discriminate
against corporations.
Hale v. Henkel [1906]
Corporations get 4th Amendment “search and seizure” protections.
Corporations use this right to demand that regulators get warrants before they
can inspect businesses for violations of labor and environmental laws.
Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. [1919]
The Michigan Supreme Court rules that a corporation exists to maximize profits
for its shareholders regardless of the impacts on the planet, economy, or
health and safety. This ruling mandates perpetual growth and practically
guarantees human and environmental abuses.
Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon [1922]
Corporations get 5th Amendment protections against the government “taking”
their property without compensation. They use this right to argue that any law
that infringes on their profit is a takings, and they can sue to recoup all the
profits they were making and would have made if the law hadn’t passed.
Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Lee [1933]
The people of Florida passed a law that levied higher taxes on chain stores than
local businesses. The Supreme Court overturned because it discriminated
against chain stores and therefore violated corporate 14th amendment rights
to equal protection.
Buckley v. Valeo [1976]
The Supreme Court rules that corporations have First Amendment rights to
freedom of speech. Since corporations do not have mouths to speak with, the
Court rules that they speak by spending money in elections. This opened the
door to a glut of corporate spending in the political process.
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
[1977]
Corporations use their First Amendment rights to overturn state restrictions on
corporate spending on political referenda. This precedent is used, with Buckley
v. Valeo, to thwart attempts to remove corporate money from politics.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. v. Public
Utilities Commission [1986]
Although PG&E has a monopoly on utilities in California, they refused to allow
an advocacy group to use extra space on their billing envelope to encourage
energy conservation. The Court sided with PG&E, upholding the corporation’s
right not to speak and protecting what they called the corporation’s “freedom
of mind.”
International Dairy Foods Association v.
Amestoy [1996]
Supreme Court overturns a Vermont law requiring the labeling of all products
containing bovine growth hormone, citing the corporations right not to speak
and extending it to statements of fact as well as statements of opinion.
Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission [2010]
Supreme Court reaffirms that a corporation is a person and states that any
restrictions on corporate money in elections violates the corporations’ First
Amendment right to free speech. This ruling overturned most provisions of
McCain Feingold legislation that restricted corporate money in federal
elections and reversed a hundred year precedent of Congressional authority to
regulate federal elections. Opens the floodgates to unlimited corporate
spending in elections. $6 billion dollars is spent in the 2012 election cycle.