Citizens United was wrong (complete reality disconnect): CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.
In the entire Constitution (written in 1789) there is not a single mention of corporations. There is not a single mention of capitalism (the “Father of Capitalism,” Adam Smith, published his five volume, 750-page work “Wealth of Nations” (which I have and have read) in London, England, in 1776, the same year as our Declaration, 13 years before the Constitution of 1789, a loyal subject of King George III, from whom the Founders had just declared their independence.
Corporations cannot serve in the military, vote, serve on juries, be imprisoned, etc. Corporations are fictional constructs designed to establish distinct entities. This “legal fiction” is established by statute; it is nowhere in the Constitution. Some of the Founders, notably Thomas Jefferson, viewed corporations as a reincarnation of the aristocratic monarchies their revolution had recently overthrown. Equating this artificial construct with human persons hardly justifies the claims of those like Antonin Scalia who call themselves “originalists.”
In Thomas Jefferson’s own words: “The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816)
Citizens United was wrong (complete reality disconnect): CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.
In the entire Constitution (written in 1789) there is not a single mention of corporations. There is not a single mention of capitalism (the “Father of Capitalism,” Adam Smith, published his five volume, 750-page work “Wealth of Nations” (which I have and have read) in London, England, in 1776, the same year as our Declaration, 13 years before the Constitution of 1789, a loyal subject of King George III, from whom the Founders had just declared their independence.
Corporations cannot serve in the military, vote, serve on juries, be imprisoned, etc. Corporations are fictional constructs designed to establish distinct entities. This “legal fiction” is established by statute; it is nowhere in the Constitution. Some of the Founders, notably Thomas Jefferson, viewed corporations as a reincarnation of the aristocratic monarchies their revolution had recently overthrown. Equating this artificial construct with human persons hardly justifies the claims of those like Antonin Scalia who call themselves “originalists.”
In Thomas Jefferson’s own words: “The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816)