May 10, 1886 - SCOTUS: corporations due equal protection rights

[DGUtley]

Supreme Court ruled corporations due equal protection rights

On May 10, 1886, the US Supreme Court ruled in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company that corporations were "persons" within the terms of the Fourteenth Amendment, and therefore were due rights of equal protection under state law. In a relatively unimportant ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that the fences on railroad property could not be taxed under California law. However, the case was of constitutional importance because of Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite’s statement, without argument, that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to corporations as well as to natural persons. The idea logically extended to the due process clause. Waite’s statement helped lay the foundation for the court’s later protection of economic liberties under the doctrine of substantive due process.



https://www.jurist.org/thisday/


https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/118/394/


https://www.history.com/news/14th-am...ns-into-people

[RMNIXON]

And this is why trying to Tax the Wealthy for targeted purposes of punishment or redistribution of wealth should not be legal.