Monday, December 30, 2002

Corporations with Human Rights? QUOTE OF THE DAY "There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by... corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses." - - James Madison RHINO HERE: Should a corporation have the same rights as a human being? Like the 1st Amendment human right of free speech (to influence politics for instance) or the 4th Amendment human right to privacy (like to prevent the OSHA or the EPA from performing surprise inspections)? Unions don't have these human rights nor do churches, or smaller, unincorporated businesses. Nor do partnerships, civic groups, even governments & from the founding of the United States, neither did corporations. These rights were given solely to humans. Thom Hartmann has written an excellent book entitled "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights" http://www.unequalprotection.com http://www.thomhartmann.com. ... which chronicles how a summary description of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, written by a clerk, changed the way the law has dealt with large corporations, and as one book reviewer, Richard W. Behan, wrote: "Unequal Protection may prove to be the most significant book in the history of corporate personhood, a doctrine which dates to 1886. For 116 years, corporate personhood has been scrutinized and criticized, but never seriously threatened. Now Thom Hartmann has discovered a fatal legal flaw in its origin: corporate personhood is doomed." "Sing, Dance, Rejoice - Corporate Personhood Is Doomed" A Review of "Unequal Protection" by Richard W. Behan http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1226-04.htm The article excerpted below, written by Thom Hartmann, offers some of the points in his book. 7:46:23 AM    comment

The Railroad Barons Are Back - And This Time They'll Finish the Job by Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams The railroad barons first tried to infiltrate the halls of government in the early years after the Civil War. The efforts of these men, particularly Jay Gould, brought the Ulysses Grant administration into such disrepute, as a result of what were then called "the railroad bribery scandals," that Grant's own Republican party refused to renominate him for the third term he wanted and ran Rutherford B. Hayes instead. As the whitehouse.gov website says of Grant, "Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted 'a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms.'" Although their misbehaviors with the administration and Congress were exposed, the railroad barons of the era were successful in a coup against the Supreme Court. One of their own was the Reporter for the Supreme Court, and they courted Justice Stephen Field with, among other things, the possibility of support for a presidential run. In the National Archives, we also recently found letters from the railroads offering free trips and other benefits to the 1886 Court's Chief Justice, Morrison R. Waite. Waite, however, didn't give in: he refused to rule the railroad corporations were persons in the same category as humans. Thus, the railroad barons resorted to plan B: they got human rights for corporations inserted in the Court Reporter's headnotes in the 1886 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case, even though the court itself (over Field's strong objections) had chosen not to rule on the constitutionality of the railroad's corporate claims to human rights. And, based on the Reporter's headnotes (and ignoring the actual ruling), subsequent Courts have expanded those human rights for corporations. These now include the First Amendment human right of free speech (including corporate "speech" to influence politics - something that was a felony in most states prior to 1886), the Fourth Amendment human right to privacy (so a chemical company has successfully sued to prevent the EPA from performing surprise inspections - while retaining the right to perform surprise inspections of its own employees' bodily fluids and phone conversations), and the 14th Amendment right to live free of discrimination (using the free-the-slaves 14th Amendment, corporations have claimed discrimination to block local community efforts to pass "bad boy laws" or keep out predatory retailers).... SEE THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1211-01.htm Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ). All copyrights belong to original publisher. - COMMENT ON TODAY'S BLOG - SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES - SURF RHINO'S LINKS http://www.rhinosblog.info "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. RHINO'S WEB SITES: http://www.rhinosblog.info (RHINO'S WEBLOG - PRESENT & PAST) http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) 7:39:55 AM    comment

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