Repeal Corporate "Personhood"

[SHRED]

End it now!

:patriot:


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.

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood_debate

---

[ThomCat]

1. I second this!

Corporate Personhood gives corporations all the benefits of being people but none of the liabilities.

Ironically, we, as real people get all the liabilities and have to fight to get any of the benefits or to have those benefits recognized or realized.

:grr:

[SHRED]

2. great points

[Devil_Fish]

32. The best way to repeal corprate person hood:

Get the ACLU involved. Simple concept:

Corporations are owned by the share houlders. If however, Corporations are persons by legal definition, then being owned makes them slaves. Slavery is illegal in the United States.

Call the ACLU! Free the slaves from their share houlders/masters. it's the constitutional thing to do.

[cyclezealot]

36. Tame them

Even if they had regular citizen's status. But, with their wealth , they are supercitizen.. Towering above the rest.

[MicaelS]

3. K & R

Probably the most important Constitutional Amendment we could possibly pass.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. K and R. eom

[cliffordu]

5. I completely agree

[msongs]

6. you really think obama and congress are gonna give back all that money lol nt

[pleah]

7. K&R

[rrneck]

8. That or

force them to assume the responsibilities of actual citizens. In a national emergency, we should be able to nationalize them with a letter from the president. And if they break the law we should be able to seize their assets. And they should be able to live no longer than the working life of an average citizen...

[anonymous171]

14. They should also be Criminally liable.

Just like the rest of us.

[rrneck]

15. Yep

That means lock up the CEO and board of directors. I like the sound of that.

[Tumbulu]

27. Agreed! (nt)

[izquierdista]

9. Lords and commoners

In the Middle Ages, there were the vast masses of commoners, peasants who were lucky if they had a pot to piss in. To get the means of life, they had to work for the people with land and money, the lords. Not much has changed in the meantime, except that nowadays the lords are called corporations and the titles aren't strictly by blood inheritance, but by money.

[undeterred]

10. Nah, we want Supreme Court judges with empathy for corporations

instead of for persons.

[meow2u3]

11. Corporate personhood can and should be repealed under the 13th Amendment

The 13 Amendment abolished slavery, which means persons cannot be owned by other persons. If a corporation is a person, then by nature the entity is a slave to human beings. Human beings who own stock in a corporation are part, if not full owners of other persons; therefore, the corporation is a slave which has effectively become their master.

[Devil_Fish]

35. Great point! call the ACLU

Free the Slaves from their masters, the Stock holders.

[crikkett]

46. That's kind of how it's been going isn't it

and it hasn't been going well.

[keep_it_real]

12. An absolute must

[Mythsaje]

13. As Thom Hartmann says:

"On this program we dare to ask the question, is Wal-Mart a person, and answer with a resounding NO!"

I've hit on this particular subject a number of times. Corporate personhood is one of the root causes of our current circumstances, particularly since the nitwits out there have decided that money (AKA campaign contributions) = free speech.

[baldguy]

18. oops

wrong spot

[dotymed]

16. Absolutely

The notion of a corporation as a person is classic Orwell. It
boggles my mind to realize that George Orwell wrote
"1984" in the 1930's. He didn't even have to use
quatrains...

[AlbertCat]

29. George Orwell wrote "1984" in the 1930's.

Actually, in 1948. He just reversed the numbers.

[Wednesdays]

17. K&R

:kick:

[baldguy]

19. Or course corporations are people.

They can raise unlimited amounts of capital, they can intimidate national, state, municipal & city govts to do their bidding, and they never die - Just like real people.

[Ilovevermont]

20. The personhood of corporations is a legal fiction.

We will never have a democracy while these entities are
allowed all of the privileges with no responsibilities. Using
the corporate ethic, we have allowed a society that values
profits before people, lies as long as they are not
discovered, and destruction of the earth and the poor.

[southerncrone]

21. The best step we could take toward battling the interests that work against the "common" man.

It was the beginning of destroying our civil liberties.

No more "wealthy robber-barons" hiding behind "corporate" charters, & being unaccountable for their misdeeds.

The sooner this happens the better.

[femrap]

22. I hate corporations.

If they are people, then they must pay taxes and DIE!!!!!

[Utopian Leftist]

23. I could not agree more!

Corporate person hood is killing us! Read these astounding words from Abraham Lincoln on the subject (this is a quote from Kalle Lasn's wonderful book Culture Jam).

"President Abraham Lincoln foresaw terrible trouble. Shortly before his death, he warned, 'Corporations have been enthroned . . . . An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people . . . until wealth is aggregated in a few hands . . . and the republic is destroyed.'"

Fucking prescient, man!

[UpInArms]

24. here's where the fart was let

http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/santaclara.html

The Santa Clara Blues:


Corporate Personhood versus Democracy




by William Meyers

What Corporate Personhood Is

Corporate Personhood is a legal fiction. The choice of the word "person" arises from the way the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was worded and from earlier legal usage of the word person. A corporation is an artificial entity, created by the granting of a charter by a government that grants such charters. Corporation in this essay will be confined to businesses run for profit that have been granted corporate charters by the States of the United States. The Federal Government of the United States usually does not grant corporate charters to businesses (exceptions include the Post Office and Amtrak).

Corporations are artificial entities owned by stockholders, who may be humans or other corporations. They are required by law to have officers and a board of directors (in small corporations these may all be the same people). In effect the corporation is a collective of individuals with a special legal status and privileges not given to ordinary unincorporated businesses or groups of individuals.

Obviously a corporation is itself no more a person (though it is owned and staffed by persons) than a locomotive or a mob. So why, in the USA, is a corporation considered to be a person under law?

In the United States of America all natural persons (actual human beings) are recognized as having inalienable rights. These rights are recognized, among other places, in the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment.

Corporate personhood is the idea (legal fiction, currently with force of law) that corporations have inalienable rights (sometimes called constitutional rights) just like real, natural, human persons.

That this idea has the force of law both resulted from the power and wealth of the class of people who owned corporations, and resulted in their even greater power and wealth. Corporate constitutional rights effectively invert the relationship between the government and the corporations. Recognized as persons, corporations lose much of their status as subjects of the government. Although artificial creations of their owners and the governments, as legal persons they have a degree of immunity to government supervision. Endowed with the court-recognized right to influence both elections and the law-making process, corporations now dominate not just the U. S. economy, but the government itself.

...much much more...

[alfredo]

25. Thomas Jefferson said in 1816

I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our
government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

[beac]

26. K & wish I could R this 1,000 times. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

28. Absolutely. Correct the error now!!

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_corporate_personhood

Thom Hartmann..Unequal Protection: the Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1226-04.htm

[47of74]

30. We need a constitutional amendment

One that says that corporations are not persons, that corporations shall always be held as inferior in status to human beings, and that corporations only exist at the sufferance of the people of the United States.

Far better in my book than amending the document to tell people who they can and cannot marry.

[rhett o rick]

31. In case you haven't noticed Congress is owned by corporations and aint gona do it. nm

[Joe Bacon]

33. Kick!

When a human being commits a crime they are punished.

When a corporation commits a crime, it should also be punished by having the government seize control of it and all its assets!

[immoderate]

34. The corporations would never allow it.

If the people decide to wake up, and harder yet, get moving, it could get interesting.

--imm

[winyanstaz]

37. So what is step 1?

[jotsy]

38. the corporation's personality profile is said to be a sociopath by nature.

"The Corporation" is a documentary that airs from time to time on Link TV, I've also seen it available to rent in video stores. I highly recommend those interested in this topic that hasn't seen it, check it out, it's breathtaking!

Making clear that we are opposed to every cent we're forced to spend in their massive domain. It might be a bit more effective if, in number, we could learn to buy as much as we can from locally owned businesses, shop resale, or any other host of ways to keep your money out of such fat hands.

[libodem]

39. .

:kick:

[earth mom]

40. K & R!

:kick:

[Enthusiast]

41. This is one source of our problems.

This decision was like inviting 1984.

[OneBlueSky]

42. the real problem with corporate personhood is that, unlike real people, . . .

corporations never die, but live on indefinitely . . . that enables them to accumulate vast amounts of wealth and influence that is unavailable to real people, whose lifespans are limited by nature . . .

[Joe Chi Minh]

43. k&r

[on point]

44. Only Registered Voters should be able to contribute to candidates

I think a simple way around the corporate person hood and the free speech argument is to change election law to say that only registered voters may contribute to a politician campaign or any initiative up for a vote. Then mandate limits on the amounts.

Some might even argue that only voters registered in that pols district should be able to contribute to them. That might drive down the cost of campaigns and make things more equal. Not sure this would pass constitutional muster though...

[philly_bob]

45. Yes. Unlikely in Obama administration -- but someday! n/t

[rjwin]

47. Corporate Personhood = The Slavemaster Makeovers

and they loved their master more than the master loved himself.