From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Dec 27 2002 - 21:18:30 MST
From: "Hal Finney" <hal@finney.org>
X-Mailer: YaBB
[Sent via extropy.org web interface]
I found further description of Santa Clara County vs Southern
Pacific Railroad Company, 118 US 394, at
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html. This is
the case which established the doctrine that corporations are
legally people with Constitutional rights, a decision which some
find highly objectionable. Personally I don't see the problem; if
people are entitled to make campaign contributions as individuals,
for example, they ought to be able to join together and do so.
In any case I studied portions of the decision, and contrary to the
claims made by the revisionists, I did find mention of the 14th
amendment as applying to the corporations. To wit,
"The special grounds of defense by each of the defendants were: ...
(2) That the provisions of the constitution and laws of California...
are in violation of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution, in
so far as they require the assessment of their property at its full
money value... thus imposing upon the defendant unequal burdens, and
to that extent denying to it the equal protection of the laws."
The defendant being the Southern Pacific Railroad, to invoke the
14th amendment it must be considered a person. The lower court
judge had upheld this argument:
"The record contains elaborate opinions stating the grounds upon which
judgments were ordered for the defendants. Mr. Justice FIELD overruled
the first of the special defenses above named, but sustained the second."
In endorsing this decision, the Supreme Court is agreeing with the
doctrine of corporate personhood. Contrary to the claims of the
article MMB posted, this was not something that the court clerk made
up on his own. It was an implicit part of the court's decision.
Hal
---- This message was posted by Hal Finney to the Extropians 2002 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=54115>
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