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How did corporations gain so much power over US politics? Original sin occurred when two Republicans (NY Senator Roscoe Conkling & OH Congressman John A. Bingham) intentionally planted an ambiguity in the 14th Amendment during drafting (1866) 1/
After ratification in 1868, the first section of the 14th Amendment read: 2/
Indeed, two SCOTUS Justices affirmed this perspective “[T]he purpose of the [14th] Amendment was to protect human rights—primarily the rights of a race which had just won its freedom.” Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Glander, 337 US 562 (1949), J. Douglas, J. Black, dissenting 3/
PROBLEM: Without clarifying ‘natural person’ (human being) or ‘artificial person’ (corporation), the drafters inserted a sly ambiguity into the last clause of the first section of the 14th Amendment 4/
‘Artificial personhood’ granted to corporations allowed the proverbial square peg of the corporate form to fit into the round hole provided by American jurisprudence — giving corporations the ability to hold property, enter contracts, & to sue & be sued https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/history-corporate-personhood 5/
[Source for quotations in the following links: https://www.thomhartmann.com/unequal-protection/excerpt-theft] 6/
“Columbia history professor Charles Beard & woman's suffrage movement activist Mary Beard suggested that the rise of corporations on the [US] landscape was the result of a grand conspiracy that reached from [railroad boardrooms] all the way to the Supreme Court.” 7/
The corporate giants of the day, the railroads, wasted no time capitalizing on the 14th Amendment ambiguity. Senator Conkling & Representative Bingham exited Congress through the ‘revolving door’ to take up lucrative railroad attorney positions 8/
Conkling & Bingham, & others of similar mindset, actively promoted the idea that for purposes of 14th Amendment rights & protections, corporations = people. 9/
