Good article particularly regarding corporations enjoying all the rights of a person but none of the responsibilities. And, of course, employees of a corporations hanging around in Iraq making money off taxpayer dollars may waterboard 'suspected terrorists' but we can't waterboard a corporation who employs terrorist actions either. Not that I believe waterboarding a corporation is the right thing to do but charging the employees and the top management of such a corporation with War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity would sober up their 'bottom line' with a little justice.

Mussolini defined Fascism. It is where Government and Business (Corporations) work closely together for their common good and profit. Fascism was also referred to as the Corporate State.

National Socialism (Nazi) was the Corporate State on steroids. It has never been surpassed in ruthlessness and control of the populace until now.

It is still covert, to a degree, but beware the future. The mechanism is in place and just a signature away.

The mind boggles at what Hitler could have accomplished with our current technology. I hope we don't find out.

"What's happening is a merger of corporations and state."

I'm not sure, but isn't the above a definition of fascism?

Left and Right is an illusion created by your owners to make you feel like you actually have choices.

The structure of the current society is divided rather Top and Bottom.

"We the People" Still do have the upper hand ,but not for long if we don't re educate ourselves and our children real fast.

Oh I just get a College education right?

The colleges are by design institutions that protect and elevate the same principles that allow the opinions of the "Ruling Class" to prevail over the serfs.

Remember years ago? All the talk of how the soldiers backed Bush.

Currently 85% of the soldiers back Paul,but you see nothing of it on the MSM.

None of this will ever change so long as the populace excepts that it must carry and eventually have implanted in there body there owners certificate of authoritarian rule over them. If you don't have your papers your not a human in the mind of your Fascist owners.

Socialism ,Capitalism,Democracy,Fascism ,Communism or what ever contraption they think up are all simply forms of ownership that the people are lead to believe will protect them.

There is only one form of government that is truly "By the people and for the people" .So (they've very wisely so) lead the masses to believe that if they are not ruled over, they would all be killing one another in the streets.

"Should we wonder from our principles in moments of error or alarm,let us hasson to retrace our steps and regain the road which alone leads to Peace ,Liberty,and Safety.

Thomas Jefferson

I believe we have a lot of retracing to do.

Just because the world as we know it may be ending, is NO REASON TO PANIC. I mean hey, we still have trees and a sky outside, right? Everybody, go and turn off the TV, the computer, and the Gloom 'N' Doom channel or the Ain't It Awful radio hour.... walk outside.... and realize, "Holy Cow! There's still ground for me to walk on! Might as well think about my feet!"
Tap dancing on the face of Mother Earth... naked, if you will... *highly NOT recommended in snowy weather*

Let me get this straight: if a corporation is a "person", how can it also be the owned property of its shareholders? A corporation is property. A person who is property is a SLAVE. If a corporation is a person, that person is a slave, and slavery was banned in the 13th amendment. So, how can a corporation be legally a person?

This article also applies to the UN.

Now, imagine how things would be if corporations were not assumed to have constitutional rights. Regulation could make it a crime for a corporation to lie. I don't mean the puffery of advertising, "Our widgets are the best in the world" even if they're not -- that's just opinion.

But if a corporation says it doesn't use child labor when it really does, that should be a crime. No "free speech" there. There is no reason at all that a corporation should have a right to free speech the way humans (natural persons) do.

Regulate corporations. Regulate their speech and their actions. And tax them. Not to death, but enough to make it worth something.

The notion that an artificial entity such as a corporation should enjoy rights in the same way as a natural person is LUDICROUS! Corporations exist by government franchise. The US government was created with imposed limitations by the people. The government cannot reasonably go and create an entity with rights equal to the one that created the government. It would be like humans creating an android with god-like powers. It can't be done.

The corporation is a privileged entity. Its officers and directors enjoy legal immunities that ordinary persons do not. Because of that privileged status, the corporation is properly the object of regulation and subject to taxation.

The only rights a corporation could logically be expected to have are statutory rights, such as the right to due process of law, given to it by legislation, not by the constitution. The government in not empowered by the constitution to ascribe natrual or constitution rights to artificial entities like corporations.

The Supreme Court decision in Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railway holding the corporation to be a person for legal purposes does solve a legal problem but goes too far. The decision must be amended to make clear that the status of artificial personhood does not confer rights.

As myriad commenters have already pointed out, the issue of 'corporate personhood' is one of the most important political, philosophical and moral issues of our time.
And where does it attract attention in governmental circles? nowhere at all. the concept is not recognised. It has become an integral part of the subterranean miasma.
Compare the 19thC, post Civil War, with 40 years of knock down drag out up front conflict over these most fundamental issues. This era is now marginalised by elite flunkies as the 'populist' era - the word that immediately invites snickering and disdain.
Ralph Nader has an excellent short chapter in a book called COrporate Power in America, published in 1973 in the US by Grossman, and in the rest of the ANglo world by Penguin in 1977. New Jersey and then Delaware were the grand sellouts to the then State-based constrained on the granting of corporate charters. David Korten's books continue to keep the issue alive, and he has highlighted the seminal SUpreme COurt decision in 1886 Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railway.
It's been all downhill since then.
And the corporate funded think tanks (Heritage, Hoover, AEI, etc. etc.) continue to blather on about republican values. Hello? There's a sucker born every minute.

We worship in an elaborate church, mosque, temple, synagogue and/or we worship in a fifty story high-rise building, one made from concrete, aluminum and glass.

We spend our lives worshiping but neither place of worship cares much for our dedication. To them we are just pawns in their selfish game.

www.dangerouscreation.com

if the american people ever wake up, they'll be mad as hell.

......and they'll be killed, if necessary, to protect corporate infrastructure

and business as usual . . . . .

Amending the Constitution changes nothing. It's meaningless. The US 'government,' the world's largest and most insidious organized crime syndicate/terrorist organization, has no problem ignoring and distorting the Geneva Convention, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (or any treaty that becomes inconvenient to greedy US government/corporate interests), the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and subsequent amendments; thus it will (1) never allow such an amendment, and (2) have no problem ignoring and/or distorting it or any future amendment that might occur. The liklihood of any amendment to the Constitution that specifically denies corporate power of any kind is so improbable that it does not even warrant further discussion. This 'government' is a an authoritarian, fascist, plutocratic, oligarchal kleptocracy that tries to disguise itself as a representative democracy, which it is not. Revolution is the only answer to dispose of this despicable, despotic charade. Read the Declaration of Independence. I suggest we start by refusing to pay taxes. Money is the only language these bastards understand.

The same rating agencies that gave AAA ratings to sub-prime backed securities were taken to court over rating Enron as Investment graded 4 days before they collapsed. The Supreme Court that the rating agencies ratings are opinions and protected by free speech under the 1st amendment.
LOL.

The profit corporations based in the US earn overseas does not get taxed in the US unless they bring the profuts home, while citizens who live overseas have to pay tax on their income earned no matter they bring it back home or not (after an 80K deduction, but that does not go a long way with the declining dollar and the high costs of living in some places).

During martial law, corporations will be empowered by the FBI to use lethal force against citizens they deem a threat to their property.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308

"Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law.
InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

"We are the owners, operators, and experts of our critical infrastructure, from the CEO of a large company in agriculture or high finance to the guy who turns the valve at the water utility," says Schneck, who by day is the vice president of research integration at Secure Computing.

In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, www.infragard.net, which adds that "350 of our nation's Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard."

FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed an InfraGard convention on August 9, 2005. At that time, the group had less than half as many members as it does today. "To date, there are more than 11,000 members of InfraGard," he said. "From our perspective that amounts to 11,000 contacts . . . and 11,000 partners in our mission to protect America." He added a little later, "Those of you in the private sector are the first line of defense."

He urged InfraGard members to contact the FBI if they "note suspicious activity or an unusual event." And he said they could sic the FBI on "disgruntled employees who will use knowledge gained on the job against their employers."

"There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations—some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers—into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI," the ACLU warned in its August 2004 report The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government Is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society.

In return for being in the know, InfraGard members cooperate with the FBI and Homeland Security. "InfraGard members have contributed to about 100 FBI cases," Schneck says. "What InfraGard brings you is reach into the regional and local communities. We are a 22,000-member vetted body of subject-matter experts that reaches across seventeen matrixes. All the different stovepipes can connect with InfraGard."

On May 9, 2007, George Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 entitled "National Continuity Policy." In it, he instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security to coordinate with "private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, as appropriate, in order to provide for the delivery of essential services during an emergency."

InfraGard members, sometimes hundreds at a time, have been used in "national emergency preparation drills," Schneck acknowledges.

One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation—and what their role might be. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, "Partnership for Protection." On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.

This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.

"The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage," he says. "From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we'd be given specific benefits." These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.
But that's not all.

"Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn't be prosecuted," he says.

"We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions," the whistleblower says. "It gave me goose bumps. It chilled me to the bone.""

Hmmm. Maybe we should lighten up on the corporate bashing.

at the state level......you start revoking charters. introduce legislation allowing the sec. of state to rule on "common good" conflicts and make sure it trumps "maximizing profits definitions" now currently defining a corporations purpose.........

and how the hell can a corporate "person" be defined by state law to exist only to "maximize shareholder profits"........citizen "persons" can't claim that.......it's discrimination.......by law.

We need to manufacture a giant set of handcuffs and attach them to these corporate buildings. Then, we can start building the concrete and steel framework that will be its prison.

An Amendment to the Constitution is the ONLY way we can hope to regain our rights. Relying on legislation is a joke [signing statements, etc]. I used to put my faith in the Supremes, but not since 2000.

Another answer would be for all labor unions to become for profit employee owned corporations, that would give them an equal footing with corporations (investor unions)in this way skilled workers could simply set the price of their product and walk away leaving the corporations with no recourse except to buy or not buy the product of their labor. As representatives of their corporations real humans would once again regain their personhood.

What is needed is a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution that explicitly states that corporations (INC's, LLC's, etc.) are not legal persons and thus not protected under the 14th Amendment. Until that happens, Santa Clara vs. Union Pacific and approximately 50 other court cases will comprise the legal armor that allows corporations to be bad actors without the same liabilities as a private person.

leeanng,

maybe some of us are aware of this but far too few and far too few understand the central part this situation plays in our current political and economic problems.

This is truly a bizarre story. Corporations as persons with 14th ammendment protections was basically made the law of the land in Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific even though it was not part of the written decision or even subject to argument in the case. Instead, the Chief Justice, Morrison Waite, declared it was so before the case was even heard.

The notion that the 14th amendment, intended to secure rights for former slaves, was intended for corporations is beyond ludicrous. To add further insult, many of the justices sitting on that court were members of other courts that sought to limit rights for slaves that the 14th amendment was specifically intended to grant.

This abomination is at the root of grossly bloated power of today's corporation and MUST be overturned.

In June 1772, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield issued the Somerset Decision which banned the practice of slavery in Britain. Mansfield's decision termed the practice so odious that only a "positive law," that is a law expressly permitting slavery, could condone it under British common law. Slaveholders visiting England petitioned Parliament for just such a law, but Parliament refused to comply. None should forget that the American colonies originally became an independent nation to protect the "freedoms" of American slaveholders from the British courts and Parliament.

everyday I wonder how much worse can it really get? Really, how much worse? Then I read this article. So fucked up.

Time to start throwing rich folks' furniture onto their lawns, people.

"Soon, the only citizens with real power in the United States may be the corporate kind."
Isn't it the way it's been for years?
These "judges" that grant human rights to corporations and deny the status of person to human beings are perverts.

The whole corporate personhood legal fiction is so bizarre. For example, it is a basic right to be able to cross-examine accusers. But when a corporation is the accuser, one never sees "the corporation" in court, only its agents. Like the Wizard of Oz, the corporation itself--though legally recognized to be a person--can never appear in person.

Test case: one of us set up a corporation, then violate "its" rights and have it sue us (ourselves), or us sue it ("ourselves"). Get this in the press, with a heated debate and legal battle between the corporation and the ones who formed it, to show the absurdity of it.

And some wonder at how ancients could actually believe in pantheons of living gods. They had gods, we have corporate persons, equally incorporeal, equally "real", equally controlling human affairs, equally immortal, equally supernatural, equally iconic ... equally claiming devotees' wealth ...

If Corporations are human, are they male or female? If one Corporation buys out another, wouldn't that be marriage? Now if Corporations are all male or all female, wouldn't that make them gay? So they would be allowed to merge or buy-out each other because according to the Republicans, gay marriage should be banned. Right?

Can a Supreme court Judge be fired for not upholding the constitution?

What am I saying - Bush already used that for toilet paper......

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

-ABRAHAM LINCOLN, November 12, 1864

The theme of this article is one of the most important of our time, and most citizens are oblivious to it altogether. Whether we do or do not appoint more judges that empower corporations over people is likewise the most important issue of the 2008 election.

And Greg R points out in a good post above that we are already WAY BEHIND due to the Bush legacy of Roberts and Alito already in place---plus hundreds of lower-court judges.

Read the article again. Then stop griping about your Democrats. They are the only (repeat, ONLY) ones who can or will appoint any judges different from those of Bush-----ever.

I'm not sure where Mr. Kaplan gets his information, but the left has not missed the fact that the government and big business have merged. It's been very noticable, and I've read many articles concerning this disturbing development. I can't count the times someone recently has written or said that fascism occurs when corporations and government become indistinguishable and that this is what has happened in America.

There are movements on the left to bring corporate "personhood" into public awareness. One major difference between the Bush administration and previous administrations is that almost all recent administrations have been in the pocket of big business, but the Bush administration IS big business.

This is not news to most of us on the left. We are not seeing "part of the same elephant" as the right. We see the whole picture; we just don't know (or maybe don't agree) about how to change it.

new definition of democracy: one corporation, one vote.

Corporations have been given judicial 'person' status, but they can live forever in multiple nations at the same time and they have no feelings. However, a person without feelings is usually called insane. I think we should give corporations a different judicial status, perhaps "The Undead." I believe attempting to regulate corporate crime is in our best interest, but some say, no, capital flight will make things worse. So, they say, it's best to just let them have their way with us, but increasingly they will take their pound of flesh. And do not expect any "activist judges" to ride to the rescue (this is The Bush Legacy, after all). Populism was gnawed to the bone. Consumption was a disease when I was born. Now it's the leading driver of our economy. We used to manufacture useful items. Now we manufacture sophisticated ponzi schemes of sub-prime mortgage repackaged derivative moneymaking miracle assets and even gift-wrapped with AAA ratings, all at no extra charge. Many Americans are near bankruptcy. Add in the national debt and each one of us owes an additional $30,000. This has yet to metastasize, but it will. We spit blood in the Middle East. We ship bales of hundred dollar bills to Iraq and lose track of them; and so the dollar plummets (the remainder of The Legacy). It's been reported (unsubstantiated) that American oil companies are offering $5 million per vote in the Iraqi legislature to get a new oil law in place that is highly favorable for these corporations. Oil companies in Canada are piping in natural gas to heat tar sands to separate oil and an ungodly byproduct mess. Resurrection and redemption are possible, but I fear silver bullets have become too precious.

"Soon, the only citizens with real power in the United States may be the corporate kind."

Seems to me we've already arrived. With the neo-stacked courts, our rights to seek justice basically curtailed, our voices stilled, and more of our rights flushed down the toilet every day, our place in this "free" country has become the dung heap.

Government of, by, and for the corporation is nothing new in Amerika...With unbridled deregulation, corporate dollars are free to roam the globe in search of cheap products and slave labor. Meanwhile, what's left of the dwindling middle class is slipping into poverty and being slowly imprisoned by border fences, gated communities, the NSA, FBI, & CIA, higher prices & tougher requirements for passports, emasculated unions equaling ever-lower wages & benefits, spy cameras, bugs on phones & internet...
1984 is here and we are its victims. So go crawl back into your corners, shut up, and behave like good non-citizens.

It's no longer 'we the people', it's now 'me the corporation'. Our political whores in D.C. have sold our citizen rights to big business. After all, politicians need big business more than they need citizens.
Hoa binh

The people must take back our human rights, out of the jaws of the corporation monoliths.

Joel Bakan's The Corporation is also good on this topic. Made into an epic documentary. Must see. If the corporation is a person, then it's a psychopath. Yet we condone its ehaviour, nurture it, facilitate its reproduction.
Monsanto as Exhibit A.