Source: https://irantorrents.com/2018/03/22/the-long-march-of-the-corporate-rights-movement/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 22:47:17+00:00

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WHO TOPS YOUR LIST of civil rights leaders? Rosa Parks? Martin Luther King Jr.? Susan B. Anthony?
Winkler begins with a startling statistic that reveals just how successful corporations have been in claiming their civil rights. Between 1868 and 1912, the Supreme Court heard 604 14th Amendment cases. Although the Amendment’s purpose was to secure the rights of newly freed slaves, only 28 of those cases involved African Americans — and most lost. The Court largely upheld discriminatory laws, such as the “separate but equal” public facilities at issue in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson.
In some instances, corporations “successfully exploited constitutional reforms originally designed for progressive causes.” Take the 1976 case of Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. A Virginia ban on advertising drug prices made it difficult for consumers to find the best prices from local pharmacies. In response, a consumer advocacy group challenged the law on behalf of pharmacy customers. The advertising ban, they argued, restricted the right of consumers to hear what a pharmacist had to say and thus violated the consumers’ “right to know” under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed, reasoning that First Amendment protection extends not only to the speaker, but also to the recipient of the speech. As a result, commercial advertising was constitutionally protected by the First Amendment.
Corporate newspapers in Louisiana were among the first movers to secure more robust rights to a free press. Frustrated with the media’s lack of support for his policies, Louisiana governor Huey Long set out to silence his critics. In 1934, Long persuaded the state legislature to pass an advertising tax on large-circulation newspapers. “[L]ying newspapers should have to pay for their lying,” Long reasoned.
The Court declared the tax unconstitutional. As the public’s main source of information, media corporations had to be protected by the First Amendment. Thanks to the newspapers’ litigation, the Court now recognized that the government could not limit the circulation of information.
Other landmark cases Winkler describes in which corporations led the fight under the First Amendment include the 1971 decision by the Supreme Court preventing President Richard Nixon from stopping publication of the classified Pentagon Papers. Here “the constitutional claimant was not leaker of the documents Daniel Ellsberg but the New York Times Company and the Washington Post Company.” The New York Times Company also features in the 1964 Supreme Court ruling establishing the right to criticize public figures without fear of libel.
In 1882, Conkling appeared before the Court to argue San Mateo County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company. On the surface, the case was nothing more than a simple tax dispute. Southern Pacific was challenging a California law that prohibited railroads, but not individuals, from deducting mortgages when calculating the value of their land for tax purposes.
Conkling was determined to make the case far more consequential. “I come now to say,” Conkling began his argument, “that the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and its creditors and stockholders are among the ‘persons’ protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.” Conkling argued that the drafters of the 14th Amendment had intended for the law to protect corporations. As proof, Conkling claimed the drafting committee changed the language of the Amendment so that it protected “persons” rather than “citizens.” The reason for this change, Conkling argued, was to extend the Constitution’s protections to artificial persons such as corporations.
Although the parties in San Mateo settled before the Court issued an opinion, the railroad would soon appear again before the Court. In 1886, the justices heard oral argument in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company — a case challenging the same California railroad tax rules as in San Mateo. This time, the Court ruled in favor of the railroad, but on narrow grounds. The opinion made no mention of corporate constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment. The Court simply ruled that the tax assessments were improperly calculated.
Santa Clara, however, has a different legacy thanks largely to one of Conkling’s co-conspirators: J. C. Bancroft Davis. Davis wasn’t a lawyer or judge, but a court reporter. It was Davis’s job to write brief summaries to the Court’s opinions that would precede the published decisions. As the former president of a railroad corporation, Davis apparently couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a lasting mark on the corporate rights movement.
The case begins when Citizens United, a nonprofit advocacy corporation, sought to challenge a federal law that prohibited corporations from using general treasury funds to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate, a position that “no one thought could be won.” Washington, DC’s top lawyers turned down the case. Winkler explains that Supreme Court precedent — which the Citizens United Court would overturn — prohibited corporations from using general treasury funds to influence candidate elections.
Citizens United did indeed expand corporate rights. The Court overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, “the two most important precedents for restricting political speech by corporations.” Yet Winkler contends that “it would be a mistake to view Citizens United as a novelty, as an ungrounded invention of the Roberts court with little basis in law or history.” The corporate victory was simply the latest in the two-century-long corporate rights movement.
We the Corporations is a must-read for anyone interested in the corporate rights debate. As Winkler notes, Citizens United is one of the Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions. Yet most people who criticize (or praise) the Court’s decision don’t understand the backdrop on which it was based. Winkler advances an important and powerful point: corporations held most of the same rights as natural persons long before Citizens United.
Winkler’s account also leaves us with some important issues that warrant further consideration. One example is the role of wealth in our justice system. Winkler attributes corporations’ astounding success to their having “the brightest, most able lawyers of the day.” Because corporations “have the financial means to hire the best lawyers,” Winkler contends that they have been able to pursue “cutting-edge, push-the-boundaries lawsuits” that others cannot afford.
Winkler’s point is especially well taken given the nature of Supreme Court litigation. Unlike other federal courts, the Supreme Court has nearly boundless power in deciding which cases to hear. Parties wishing to appeal their cases to the Supreme Court must file certiorari petitions — legal briefs that argue why the Court should agree to hear their case. The number of petitions accepted by the Court has varied throughout its history, but in recent decades has been extremely small. During the 2016–’17 term, for example, the Supreme Court heard only 76 of the 6,305 appeals it received.
Affording a lawyer with such expertise in Supreme Court litigation isn’t cheap, and corporations are some of the only clients that can afford their services. One study found that between 2004 and 2012, members of the Supreme Court bar filed over half of their appeals on behalf of for-profit, business corporations.
Winkler does not offer a position on this phenomenon, but it warrants consideration. The rise of the Supreme Court bar has been controversial. Some say it is a positive development because these seasoned advocates know how to stress the kinds of arguments that make a case seem most attractive for review to the justices. Others argue that the Supreme Court’s docket should not be so dependent on the cases that this small group of repeat players — most of whom are white men who represent business interests — bring before the Court each year.
The effort to turn back the remarkably successful corporate rights movement would have to wait for another day — and another, more deep-pocketed challenger who, like the wealthy and powerful corporations that fought to gain constitutional rights over the course of American history, could afford the costs of litigation.
Winkler’s thought-provoking tale leaves readers to reflect on what, if anything, should be done about the corporate rights movement. Should corporations have “a considerable share of the Constitution’s most fundamental protections” — protections that women and racial minorities earned only after overcoming “historic struggles”? And if the rights of corporations should be pared back, how should that be done?
These questions are as important as they are timely. In the wake of Citizens United, corporations have rushed to the courts to claim an ever-broadening range of liberties. In 2014, corporations won again when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have religious freedom rights under a federal statute that protects the rights of “persons.” This term, the Court will decide whether corporations can be sued in US courts for human rights abuses and terrorism committed abroad.
We the Corporations may not leave you with suspense as to the result of such cases — the corporations will likely win — but it will make you think critically about one of the most consequential yet understudied civil rights movements.
Ryan Azad is admitted to practice law in California after receiving his JD from the UCLA School of Law. He currently serves as a judicial law clerk. He was a law student in Adam Winkler’s corporate rights seminar and is thanked by Winkler in the book’s acknowledgments.
The post The Long March of the Corporate Rights Movement appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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