The United States Judicial System, indeed the judicial systems in many countries, relies on a trick of logic in order to use laws in ways that they were not originally intended. This trick is called a “legal fiction”, a construct that exists only within the legal system for the purposes of making the legal process more streamlined or tidy (not that anyone would consider a legal system either of those things). However, when a legal fiction becomes a socially accepted fact, the purpose for its original creation becomes perverted. That is exactly what happened to a seemingly harmless decision in the 1886 case of Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad.

            In the case, Santa Clara County, CA, denied the railroad the ability to deduct its mortgages from the rest of its taxable property, which actual citizens enjoyed. The dispute went through several courts until the U.S. Supreme Court where it was decided that, for the purposes of tax law, corporations would enjoy the same ability to appeal taxes that real people do. That is the origin of the corporate personhood legal fiction.

            However, the court reporter Bancroft Davis (former president of a Railroad himself) stated in a head-note of the document before the Supreme Court that the earlier courts “did not want to hear argument on the provision that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution…applies to these corporations.” In other words, corporations were granted full fourteenth amendment rights (right to equal protection under law) as actual U.S. citizens because of a court reporter’s embellishment. In every subsequent case, this assumption has held.

             The issue in this is that the fourteenth amendment rights (an amendment that was created to protect freed slaved during Reconstruction) applied to corporations now opens it up to every other amendment right by law. Freedom of speech in promoting its collective agenda, including financing political campaigns (1^st amendment), freedom to deny incrimination by withholding evidence of wrongdoing (5^th amendment), as well as the ability to supercede state rate/cost regulations (specific to the 14^th amendment). Essentially, and this is important, corporations were granted the same freedoms, protections, and privileges as private citizens.

             There is a long history of judicial wrangling over the issue of corporate personhood. However, with the Supreme Court decision in 2010 (Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission) it could be argued that corporations now have more legally-protected freedoms than ever before. In 2010, the Supreme Court set a legal precedent that gave corporations the ability to contribute an indefinite amount of money in promotion of a particular candidate (not to that particular candidate) just as any private citizen is able. Essentially, any of the major business corporations in the country can run as many ads as they like in favor of any candidates they like.

              This most recent decision came into stark focus with Koch Industries, who disseminated pamphlets and mandated “in-services” to their employees that promoted a pro-deregulation agenda. In fact, so upset with some of these promotional pamphlets and propaganda that employees in Washington and Oregon threatened to strike. This practice, though not widespread yet, will assuredly become a heated issue in the 2012 Presidential election as multi-national corporations take advantage of their “14^th amendment” freedoms in attempting to manipulate the democratic process.

              The problem is, corporations aren’t people. In fact, the very essence of corporations has changed since these legal precedents were put in place. Corporations have gone from simple collections of individuals with a common investment into multi-national, multi-billion dollar conglomerates with hundreds of thousands of employees, shareholders and CEO’s worth more than the GDP of small nations, and the kind of influence that was only wielded by foreign dignitaries.

- A corporation, when it protects itself, has the power of whole legal firms behind it. When as real, flesh-and-blood person does, they get a lawyer, or the very least refuse to say anything to a cop. In fact, corporations are rarely prosecuted anymore…because the country is afraid what will happen to the entire economy should their stocks fall. Too big to fail is also too big to prosecute.

- A corporation, when it demonstrates free-speech, is able to use all 30 of its networks to promote an agenda. A real flesh-and-blood person might hand out some pamphlets, or, at the most, buy some ad time during the local newscast.

- A corporation, when it exerts its freedom to set prices and dictate rates, influences the costs and rates of the same products and services in the rest of the country. A flesh-an-blood individual will raise their prices and, if someone doesn’t like it, they drop them again. A person doesn’t dictate cost. A corporation does with the power of a multi-national network of companies that functions as its own economy.

            How has our country allowed the concept of corporate personhood, which began as a legal fiction to iron out a land-tax dispute, into a fantastic perversion of law and logic? Throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries (let’s not forget 2010) legal precedents were set (coincidentally, under Republican administrations) where corporations were granted greater personhood in the eyes of the law and eventually it was given credence by supporters of private sector deregulation. By preventing the government from regulating corporations, huge profits from the wide-reaching networks of subsidiary companies could be created. The result was, on one hand, incredible profits by these commercial entities and, on the other hand, massive savings on basic consumer products (often from exploitation of our own working class or, after the rise in power of unions, by third-world countries).

            Now many conservatives are vocal in their defense of economic freedom and governmental deregulation. Despite the clear evidence that a completely free capitalist market is incredibly unstable and dangerous, these individuals persist in the idea that it was the original intention of our forefathers. The truth is anything but. These conservative economy-hogs are simply, out of greed or ignorance, preaching a gospel born from a legal fiction. A small fabrication of convenience has been blown into a cultural, social, and political movement that may, if allowed to run amuck, destroy everything that the rest of us have been working for since the formation of this union.

            A corporation is not a collective of people, but a profit-motivated entity in and of itself with little regard for morals, ethics, or even the United States. Corporations today use the political process as a tool to further their profit margin…nothing else. They have no moral conscience, and the people that run them frequently don't either. Don’t consider corporations a person, don’t even consider them American. The private industry should be a tool of the people, not the other way around.

Photo from theepochtimes.com