America, Incorporated
In the 1880s, the Supreme Court determined corporations essentially had many of the same legal characteristics and rights as individuals. America, it seemed, was all business.
In 1907, in an uncharacteristically independent moment of the Gilded Age, the US Congress passed The Tillman Act banning corporations from directly funding federal candidates. 40 years later they passed further restrictions specifically limiting corporations and labor unions from using money from their general treasuries to influence the outcome of federal elections. In 2002, the McCain-Feingold Act imposed more restrictions on corporations.
Today, the Supreme Court decided the free speech rights of those corporations was unconstitutionally limited.
5 justices threw out nearly 100 years of law and their own precedents to strike down restrictions on corporations funding political activity and advertising from their general treasuries.
So what’s the real story? It took a decade, but the payoff finally happened.
On December 12, 2000, the Supreme Court selected the un-elected George W. Bush as President of the United States. He made no bones about his ties to big business.
Narrowly rejected by the American people but injected with massive power by the Court, Bush passed major corporate tax breaks. He rolled back, undermined or eliminated regulations and restrictions on corporations. His Vice President invited utility companies to the White House to craft policies on the environment and energy.
And when it was time for Bush to pay it forward, he passed on his corporate good will to future generations of executives.
He appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. They kept corporate progress on track.
Today, the strict constructionists became the ultimate judicial activists stepping far beyond the basic issues of the case to pull down generations-old laws and strike down respected precedents. Reading new corporate rights into the constitution that aren’t there.
Why? Because big corporations are finally under threat from governmental restrictions. The elected U.S. President and progressive Congress threatened to rein in banks; to stand up to insurance companies; to demand energy conglomerates find clean fuel alternatives; to support working people in their right to choose a union.
Demanding equal rights and fair treatment for all. It’s the American way.
In the years ahead, the Senator from Citibank or the Congressman from Goldman Sachs may make an inspirational speech about that.
But for individual citizens like us, it’ll just sound like a quaint old idea whose time has run out.
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Ah-hah — kinda wish I’d read this before I blogged …. gotta use the RSS
July 19th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Hands down this is the best blog I’ve found in a week.