User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: 'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

  1. #1
    Points: 665,303, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 84.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433316
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,554
    Points
    665,303
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,984
    Thanked 80,905x in 54,720 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)

    'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

    The twisted tale of how corporations became persons.

    Keep in mind that back then, the late 1800s, the Republicans were the party of big government and cronyism and Democrats of small government and free markets, among other things (see Murray Rothbard, [iThe Progressive Era[/i].)

    'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie

    ...How exactly did corporations come to be understood as “people” bestowed with the most fundamental constitutional rights? The answer can be found in a bizarre—even farcical—series of lawsuits over 130 years ago involving a lawyer who lied to the Supreme Court, an ethically challenged justice, and one of the most powerful corporations of the day.

    ...In 1881, after California lawmakers imposed a special tax on railroad property, Southern Pacific pushed back, making the bold argument that the law was an act of unconstitutional discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment....

    The head lawyer representing Southern Pacific was a man named Roscoe Conkling...spoke before the Court on Southern Pacific’s behalf, Conkling recounted an astonishing tale. In the 1860s, when he was a young congressman, Conkling had served on the drafting committee that was responsible for writing the Fourteenth Amendment. Then the last member of the committee still living, Conkling told the justices that the drafters had changed the wording of the amendment, replacing “citizens” with “persons” in order to cover corporations too. ...Conkling buttressed his account with a surprising piece of evidence: a musty old journal he claimed was a previously unpublished record of the deliberations of the drafting committee.

    Years later, historians would discover that Conkling’s journal was real but his story was a fraud....

    ...The justices held onto the case for three years without ever issuing a decision, until Southern Pacific unexpectedly settled the case. Then, shortly after, another case from Southern Pacific reached the Supreme Court, raising the exact same legal question....

    ...By tradition, the reporter writes up a summary of the Court’s opinion and includes it at the beginning of the opinion. The reporter in the 1880s was J.C. Bancroft Davis, whose wildly inaccurate summary of the Southern Pacific case said that the Court had ruled that “corporations are persons within … the Fourteenth Amendment.” Whether his summary was an error or something more nefarious—Davis had once been the president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company—will likely never be known.

    ...A few years later, in an opinion in an unrelated case, Field wrote that “corporations are persons within the meaning” of the Fourteenth Amendment. “It was so held in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad,” explained Field, who knew very well that the Court had done no such thing.

    ...In the following years, the case would be cited over and over by courts across the nation, including the Supreme Court, for deciding that corporations had rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

    ...The day back in 1882 when the Supreme Court first heard Roscoe Conkling’s argument, the New-York Daily Tribune featured a story on the case with a headline that would turn out to be prophetic: “Civil Rights of Corporations.” Indeed, in a feat of deceitful legal alchemy, Southern Pacific and its wily legal team had, with the help of an audacious Supreme Court justice, set up the Fourteenth Amendment to be more of a bulwark for the rights of businesses than the rights of minorities.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  2. #2
    Points: 222,626, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 32.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsVeteranYour first Group
    Ethereal's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    468804
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Posts
    67,628
    Points
    222,626
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    14,219
    Thanked 41,536x in 26,005 Posts
    Mentioned
    1169 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Yes, the Republicans are the original big government progressives. They were also corporate cronies masquerading as populists. Teddy Roosevelt is probably the best example of an oligarch who managed to fool everyone into believing he was fighting for the people instead of the interests of his fellow oligarchs. Virtually everything they did in those days, including their "corporations are people" mythology, were done on behalf of big business. And it's been that way ever since. The US government is owned by oligarchs, not the American people.
    Power always thinks it has a great soul, and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak. And that it is doing God service when it is violating all His laws.
    --John Adams

  3. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Ethereal For This Useful Post:

    Captdon (03-07-2018),Chris (03-07-2018)

  4. #3
    Points: 147,467, Level: 92
    Level completed: 23%, Points required for next Level: 2,783
    Overall activity: 80.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    zelmo1234's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    156790
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    MICHIGAN
    Posts
    56,194
    Points
    147,467
    Level
    92
    Thanks Given
    24,295
    Thanked 20,074x in 14,369 Posts
    Mentioned
    432 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    All of the above may be true, but if you are going to tax them, then you have to let them have their say.

  5. #4
    Points: 222,626, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 32.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsVeteranYour first Group
    Ethereal's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    468804
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Posts
    67,628
    Points
    222,626
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    14,219
    Thanked 41,536x in 26,005 Posts
    Mentioned
    1169 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by zelmo1234 View Post
    All of the above may be true, but if you are going to tax them, then you have to let them have their say.
    Nobody has more of a say than big corporations. They have effectively owned the US government since the 1860's, if not earlier.
    Power always thinks it has a great soul, and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak. And that it is doing God service when it is violating all His laws.
    --John Adams

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to Ethereal For This Useful Post:

    zelmo1234 (03-07-2018)

  7. #5
    Points: 665,303, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 84.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433316
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,554
    Points
    665,303
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,984
    Thanked 80,905x in 54,720 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by zelmo1234 View Post
    All of the above may be true, but if you are going to tax them, then you have to let them have their say.
    They don't pay taxes, they pass it on to consumers. That's part of the cronyism, the concentrated benefits of political favors, and the distributed cost to taxpayers.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  8. #6
    Points: 147,467, Level: 92
    Level completed: 23%, Points required for next Level: 2,783
    Overall activity: 80.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    zelmo1234's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    156790
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    MICHIGAN
    Posts
    56,194
    Points
    147,467
    Level
    92
    Thanks Given
    24,295
    Thanked 20,074x in 14,369 Posts
    Mentioned
    432 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    They don't pay taxes, they pass it on to consumers. That's part of the cronyism, the concentrated benefits of political favors, and the distributed cost to taxpayers.
    I guess that you don't pay taxes either then, it comes out or your check so your company pays it.

    Of course we get the money from profits we would be out of business if we did not.

    But if you are going to levy a corporate tax on companies then they should have a say in government.

    No taxations without representation.

  9. #7
    Points: 84,523, Level: 70
    Level completed: 87%, Points required for next Level: 327
    Overall activity: 12.0%
    Achievements:
    Tagger Second Class50000 Experience PointsSocialVeteran
    Captdon's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    12826
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    Charleston South Carolina
    Posts
    38,294
    Points
    84,523
    Level
    70
    Thanks Given
    67,690
    Thanked 12,837x in 10,134 Posts
    Mentioned
    161 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    My 17 year old grandson pays taxes but he can't vote. So, where's his representation? He should be exempt from taxes since he doesn't have any representation.
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
    Pick your enemies carefully.






+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts