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Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy from Big Money and Global Corporations
A revised and updated edition of the definitive guide to overturning Citizens United.
Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that the rights of things—money and corporations—matter more than the rights of people, America has faced a crisis of democracy. In this timely and thoroughly updated second edition, Jeff Clements describes the strange history of this bizarre ruling, its ongoing destructive effects, and the growing movement to reverse it.
He includes a new chapter, “Do Something!,” showing how—state by state and community by community—Americans are using creative strategies and tools to renew democracy and curb unbalanced corporate power. Since the first edition, sixteen states, one-hundred-sixty members of Congress, and five hundred cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and the list is growing. This is a fight we can win!
“More relevant than ever, this updated edition of Corporations Are Not People chronicles the remarkably vibrant, nationwide grassroots movement to ‘get money out and voters in.’” —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher, The Nation
Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that the rights of things—money and corporations—matter more than the rights of people, America has faced a crisis of democracy. In this timely and thoroughly updated second edition, Jeff Clements describes the strange history of this bizarre ruling, its ongoing destructive effects, and the growing movement to reverse it.
He includes a new chapter, “Do Something!,” showing how—state by state and community by community—Americans are using creative strategies and tools to renew democracy and curb unbalanced corporate power. Since the first edition, sixteen states, one-hundred-sixty members of Congress, and five hundred cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and the list is growing. This is a fight we can win!
“More relevant than ever, this updated edition of Corporations Are Not People chronicles the remarkably vibrant, nationwide grassroots movement to ‘get money out and voters in.’” —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher, The Nation
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 8, 2018
A thoughtful, passionate look at the abysmal Citizens United case (which affirmed and broadened past decisions holding that corporations are "people" and have freedom of speech rights; in this case, it means that the government can't apply corporate finance rules to them if it blocks their free speech rights).
Read as research for a paper I'm writing (not about corporations, but about granting legal personhood rights to environmental areas, because fuck corporate law).
Read as research for a paper I'm writing (not about corporations, but about granting legal personhood rights to environmental areas, because fuck corporate law).
May 15, 2012
Wonderfully well argued, most helpful to me was Chapter Seven, where Clements outlines how we can create a lasting democracy and reinstitute the government by and for the people, remembering that corporations are tools and tools that whose owners and directors and executives and staffs and shareholders have to use responsibly. Good for small group study and neighborhood discussions.
November 27, 2023
This book can be divided into two main parts: the description of the problem and the prescription to fix the problem. The former is more persuasive than the latter.
Jeffrey Clements is a former Attorney General from Massachusetts. He makes a
solid case about the harm caused by the landmark Citizen’s United vs. Federal
Election Commission, decided in 2010, and by subsequent cases following the precedent. The goal of his book is to promote a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizen’s United.
Writing in 2014, Clements wrote that his movement is
“well on its way to a Twenty-Eighth Amendment.” There will be more analysis of
an amendment’s likelihood later in this review.
Justice Lewis Powell is the father of Citizen’s United. When Powell was a lawyer for the tobacco industry, he wrote a memo in 1971 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He advocated a sustained corporate effort to shape “an activist-minded Supreme Court” in order to protect corporations from government regulation.
President Nixon nominated Powell for the SCOTUS in 1972. Justice Powell was a consistent vote to strike down government regulation of corporations. He introduced the new concept of “corporate speech” in the First Amendment.
The key precedent before Citizens United came in 1978. Justice Powell wrote the
decision of National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti. Decided by a vote of 5-4, it invalidated a Massachusetts statute banning corporate funding of ballot
initiatives.
In 2010, the five-member majority of the SCOTUS decided Citizen’s United vs.
Federal Election Commission. The court declared that for-profit corporations and
unions have freedom of speech under the First Amendment just like people do. Consequently, limits on corporate donations to political candidates or to their campaigns violate the Constitution (COTUS). The court majority overturned two
court precedents affirming the right of Americans to regulate corporate involvement in elections, and struck down the bipartisan McCain-Feingold Act, which the SCOTUS had previously upheld in 2003 in McConnell v. FEC.
As a consequence of this decision, the amount of corporate money spent on
elections has skyrocketed. In addition, spending to support or to oppose candidates or propositions takes place without disclosure as “dark money.”
“These unprecedented cases transformed the people’s First Amendment speech freedom into a corporate right to challenge public oversight and corporate regulation.” A variety of regulations has been struck down under this precedent.
There is no reason to believe that the Founding Fathers or the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment intended to extend constitutional rights to corporations.
James Madison, known as the father of the Constitution, called corporations “at
best a necessary evil.” When the Declaration of Independence says “we are
endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights,” the reference was to human beings. Likewise, the first words of the COTUS are “we the people of the United States,” not “we the human and corporate persons.”
“Originalists” who insist the COTUS be interpreted based upon the original meaning and intent, strongly oppose the Roe v. Wade decision, which was also written by Justice Powell. Conservatives insisted the SCOTUS has no business in
creating a new constitutional right to an abortion. If originalists were consistent,
however, they cannot also support the judicial activism in grafting the new concept of corporate speech into the Bill of Rights.
It’s doubtful anyone can plausibly deny that corporations gained vastly increased political power after 2010. Corporate donations to politicians became protected
speech, not bags of cash to buy influence. The new corporate rights reduced the
freedom of the majority of Americans to get enacted stricter disclosure laws.
That’s because judges would invalidate the laws as burdensome to freedom of
speech.
An example is a state law banning cigarette ads within 1,000 feet of a school or playground. The SCOTUS struck it down in 2001 because it violated corporate free speech. This raises the question of whether government of the people, by the people and for the people still exists.
Corporations are economic entities created by state law, not “endowed by our Creator.” If corporations were persons, however, they would be psychopaths, incapable of empathy and with a single-minded focus on self-interest in maximizing profits. The idea of the public interest and public good gets redefined as what best serves those with the most money. What best serves the corporate interest is weak government regulation, unless it is of potential competitors.
It would be in the public interest, for example, to have fewer junk food ads targeting children, but courts prevent the law from limiting corporate speech.
Ditto for stricter regulation of for-profit colleges that rely upon Pell grants, federal
student loans and GI benefits. As Republican Theodore Roosevelt said, It is “folly
to try to prohibit them (corporations), but…also folly to leave them without
thoroughgoing control….There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.”
Corporate persons can’t vote, but they don’t need to in a pay-to-play system. A handful of powerful industries spend $billions on lobbying and on electing friendly politicians. Unions donate as well, but they aren’t in the top 20 spenders on lobbying in Washington D.C. That’s the reason the federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in decades, federal tax cuts go disproportionately to those who can best afford to pay, and economic inequality has been steadily widening in the U.S. and is wider than in other developed countries.
THE REMEDY
Clements issues a clarion call to ensure that “government of the people does not perish from the earth.” He is convinced that reform is possible. “The people have
always had the last word” on what the COTUS means. That’s true in theory, but rarely in practice.
Since the Bill of Rights were adopted in the early 1790s, there have been only 17 more amendments in more than two centuries, and it took a Civil War to enact three of them. Only six of those 17 overturned SCOTUS decisions. Six times in 230 years. Proponents of the ERA found out the hard way
how difficult it is.
The fact is that the COTUS is the most difficult written constitution in the world to
amend. It is impossible to ratify an amendment without overwhelming bipartisan
support, which Clements recognizes. The last time our country was so sharply
polarized was on the eve of the Civil War. The five justices who decided Citizens United were all Republicans. Corporate money goes to pols in both parties but favors Republicans. If anything is certain other than death and taxes, it is that the
party that benefits from the status quo will not voluntarily surrender its advantage.
Clements calls such talk “defeatism.” I think it is the political reality. Denying the
extreme partisanship won’t change it. Clements is more persuasive, however, when he writes that even failed drives for an amendment, such as the ERA, still have beneficial effects by focusing attention where it’s needed. It seems doubtful that we the people would have voted to endow corporations with unalienable
rights. -30-
Jeffrey Clements is a former Attorney General from Massachusetts. He makes a
solid case about the harm caused by the landmark Citizen’s United vs. Federal
Election Commission, decided in 2010, and by subsequent cases following the precedent. The goal of his book is to promote a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizen’s United.
Writing in 2014, Clements wrote that his movement is
“well on its way to a Twenty-Eighth Amendment.” There will be more analysis of
an amendment’s likelihood later in this review.
Justice Lewis Powell is the father of Citizen’s United. When Powell was a lawyer for the tobacco industry, he wrote a memo in 1971 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He advocated a sustained corporate effort to shape “an activist-minded Supreme Court” in order to protect corporations from government regulation.
President Nixon nominated Powell for the SCOTUS in 1972. Justice Powell was a consistent vote to strike down government regulation of corporations. He introduced the new concept of “corporate speech” in the First Amendment.
The key precedent before Citizens United came in 1978. Justice Powell wrote the
decision of National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti. Decided by a vote of 5-4, it invalidated a Massachusetts statute banning corporate funding of ballot
initiatives.
In 2010, the five-member majority of the SCOTUS decided Citizen’s United vs.
Federal Election Commission. The court declared that for-profit corporations and
unions have freedom of speech under the First Amendment just like people do. Consequently, limits on corporate donations to political candidates or to their campaigns violate the Constitution (COTUS). The court majority overturned two
court precedents affirming the right of Americans to regulate corporate involvement in elections, and struck down the bipartisan McCain-Feingold Act, which the SCOTUS had previously upheld in 2003 in McConnell v. FEC.
As a consequence of this decision, the amount of corporate money spent on
elections has skyrocketed. In addition, spending to support or to oppose candidates or propositions takes place without disclosure as “dark money.”
“These unprecedented cases transformed the people’s First Amendment speech freedom into a corporate right to challenge public oversight and corporate regulation.” A variety of regulations has been struck down under this precedent.
There is no reason to believe that the Founding Fathers or the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment intended to extend constitutional rights to corporations.
James Madison, known as the father of the Constitution, called corporations “at
best a necessary evil.” When the Declaration of Independence says “we are
endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights,” the reference was to human beings. Likewise, the first words of the COTUS are “we the people of the United States,” not “we the human and corporate persons.”
“Originalists” who insist the COTUS be interpreted based upon the original meaning and intent, strongly oppose the Roe v. Wade decision, which was also written by Justice Powell. Conservatives insisted the SCOTUS has no business in
creating a new constitutional right to an abortion. If originalists were consistent,
however, they cannot also support the judicial activism in grafting the new concept of corporate speech into the Bill of Rights.
It’s doubtful anyone can plausibly deny that corporations gained vastly increased political power after 2010. Corporate donations to politicians became protected
speech, not bags of cash to buy influence. The new corporate rights reduced the
freedom of the majority of Americans to get enacted stricter disclosure laws.
That’s because judges would invalidate the laws as burdensome to freedom of
speech.
An example is a state law banning cigarette ads within 1,000 feet of a school or playground. The SCOTUS struck it down in 2001 because it violated corporate free speech. This raises the question of whether government of the people, by the people and for the people still exists.
Corporations are economic entities created by state law, not “endowed by our Creator.” If corporations were persons, however, they would be psychopaths, incapable of empathy and with a single-minded focus on self-interest in maximizing profits. The idea of the public interest and public good gets redefined as what best serves those with the most money. What best serves the corporate interest is weak government regulation, unless it is of potential competitors.
It would be in the public interest, for example, to have fewer junk food ads targeting children, but courts prevent the law from limiting corporate speech.
Ditto for stricter regulation of for-profit colleges that rely upon Pell grants, federal
student loans and GI benefits. As Republican Theodore Roosevelt said, It is “folly
to try to prohibit them (corporations), but…also folly to leave them without
thoroughgoing control….There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.”
Corporate persons can’t vote, but they don’t need to in a pay-to-play system. A handful of powerful industries spend $billions on lobbying and on electing friendly politicians. Unions donate as well, but they aren’t in the top 20 spenders on lobbying in Washington D.C. That’s the reason the federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in decades, federal tax cuts go disproportionately to those who can best afford to pay, and economic inequality has been steadily widening in the U.S. and is wider than in other developed countries.
THE REMEDY
Clements issues a clarion call to ensure that “government of the people does not perish from the earth.” He is convinced that reform is possible. “The people have
always had the last word” on what the COTUS means. That’s true in theory, but rarely in practice.
Since the Bill of Rights were adopted in the early 1790s, there have been only 17 more amendments in more than two centuries, and it took a Civil War to enact three of them. Only six of those 17 overturned SCOTUS decisions. Six times in 230 years. Proponents of the ERA found out the hard way
how difficult it is.
The fact is that the COTUS is the most difficult written constitution in the world to
amend. It is impossible to ratify an amendment without overwhelming bipartisan
support, which Clements recognizes. The last time our country was so sharply
polarized was on the eve of the Civil War. The five justices who decided Citizens United were all Republicans. Corporate money goes to pols in both parties but favors Republicans. If anything is certain other than death and taxes, it is that the
party that benefits from the status quo will not voluntarily surrender its advantage.
Clements calls such talk “defeatism.” I think it is the political reality. Denying the
extreme partisanship won’t change it. Clements is more persuasive, however, when he writes that even failed drives for an amendment, such as the ERA, still have beneficial effects by focusing attention where it’s needed. It seems doubtful that we the people would have voted to endow corporations with unalienable
rights. -30-
November 28, 2012
Although the author brings up many points that are undeniably true I don't think it was more than a rabble-rauzer. I read this for school and even in that context I felt like ok now that I am aware what should I do? Maybe its me, but I think as teenagers we all had this idea of "screw big business" but then came the real world and really what choice do we have? I would have gave the book 3 stars had it given me more realistic ideas.
April 23, 2012
Citizens United, Corporate Personhood, and the Movement to Restore Political Power to the People
If you’re like most Americans, you may think that the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is the root cause of the stranglehold on U.S. elections by major corporations and the 1%.
If you follow public affairs more closely than most, you’re aware that the situation is more complicated than this — that the misbegotten principle of “corporate personhood” that underpins Citizens United is a major element in the picture. I knew that much before I read Jeffrey Clements’ eye-opening book, Corporations Are Not People – but I didn’t have a clue where that concept came from, how it grew into one of the dominant judicial doctrines of the last several decades, or the truly pivotal role it has played in recent American history.
In fact, Citizens United was only one of the latest episodes in a four-decade-long history of legal, political, and social change that has moved the center of gravity in public discourse in America so far to the right that our last two Democratic Presidents can only be seen in global context as moderate conservatives, while today’s Republican leaders hold such extreme views that to term them “conservative” is a gross misuse of the language.
As Jeffrey Clements tells it, the story begins in 1970 with the first Earth Day. The mobilization of more than 20 million Americans in that masterful organizing effort led to the passage of a long series of laws that established the basis for long-overdue environmental regulation: the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Act that created OSHA, the Clean Air Act, and a host of others.
Then the corporate world struck back.
A soft-spoken Southern attorney named Lewis F. Powell, Jr. led the charge. Powell was defending Philip Morris in the growing wave of lawsuits about cigarette smoking in the 1960s and sat on its board. Shortly before accepting his appointment to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon in 1971, Powell wrote a now-infamous memo to a friend at the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the bastion of corporate America. The “Powell Memo” kicked off the four-decade assault by the corporate elite and the 1% that stifles American democracy today.
Under the title “Attack on American Free Enterprise System,” Powell explained, “‘No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack.’ In response, corporations must organize and fund a drive to achieve political power through ‘united action.’” As a lawyer, Powell naturally saw the courts as the centerpiece of the pro-corporate strategy he advocated. “Activist judges” on courts throughout the land, and especially on the U. S. Supreme Court, would roll back legislation such as the flood of new environmental laws.
The corporate campaign rolled out in the years after Powell’s memo in spheres of activity: lobbying Congress, state legislatures, and the public through industry front groups such as the Tobacco Institute and the Edison Electric Institute; electing or appointing pro-corporate judges such as Powell himself; and influencing public education and shaping public opinion through a flotilla of Right-Wing think tanks including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and many others.
Since Powell’s memo circulated in the upper echelons of corporate America in 1971, corporations, primarily the large transnational companies that dominate the Chamber of Commerce, have poured billions of dollars into these activities. However, until his death in 1998, Lewis Powell continued to lead the pro-corporate effort from his seat on the U. S. Supreme Court. In the early and mid-1970s, Powell was thwarted by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, but the tide turned in 1978 when Powell prevailed over strenuous objections from the Chief in a case that firmly established the “right” of corporations to flaunt laws passed to keep them in check by establishing the principle of corporate personhood.
Corporations Are Not People is an activist plea for readers to join the gathering movement to overturn Citizens United, wrest political power from the corporations, and put it back in the hands of people. As Jeffrey Clements sees it, there are “three essential steps to roll back corporate dominance of government: (1) a twenty-eighth amendment to the Constitution that will overturn Citizens United and corporate rights and restore people’s rights; (2) corporate accountability and charter reform to ensure that corporations better reflect the public policy reasons for which we allow the legal benefits of incorporation, such as limited liability, in the first place; and (3) election law reform, including increased public funding, greater transparency, and an end to legal political bribery.”
As an advocate for public funding of elections since 1972 and a long-time participant in electoral politics at every level – local, regional, statewide, and national – I find Clements’ three steps to be right on target. The structural reforms he proposes would strike at the heart of the forces that are strangling our political rights and advancing the interests of the 1% against those of the 99%.
Much of Corporations Are Not People is devoted to the many resources offered readers at the back of the book: the wording of the proposed 28th Amendment; a draft resolution favoring passage of the amendment that organizations and local governmental bodies may adopt; and contact information for the growing list of organizations that are coming together in the new movement to roll back corporate power.
Jeffrey D. Clements is an attorney in Concord, Massachusetts. A former Assistant Attorney General of his state, he cofounded Free Speech for People following the ruling in Citizens United.
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
If you’re like most Americans, you may think that the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is the root cause of the stranglehold on U.S. elections by major corporations and the 1%.
If you follow public affairs more closely than most, you’re aware that the situation is more complicated than this — that the misbegotten principle of “corporate personhood” that underpins Citizens United is a major element in the picture. I knew that much before I read Jeffrey Clements’ eye-opening book, Corporations Are Not People – but I didn’t have a clue where that concept came from, how it grew into one of the dominant judicial doctrines of the last several decades, or the truly pivotal role it has played in recent American history.
In fact, Citizens United was only one of the latest episodes in a four-decade-long history of legal, political, and social change that has moved the center of gravity in public discourse in America so far to the right that our last two Democratic Presidents can only be seen in global context as moderate conservatives, while today’s Republican leaders hold such extreme views that to term them “conservative” is a gross misuse of the language.
As Jeffrey Clements tells it, the story begins in 1970 with the first Earth Day. The mobilization of more than 20 million Americans in that masterful organizing effort led to the passage of a long series of laws that established the basis for long-overdue environmental regulation: the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Act that created OSHA, the Clean Air Act, and a host of others.
Then the corporate world struck back.
A soft-spoken Southern attorney named Lewis F. Powell, Jr. led the charge. Powell was defending Philip Morris in the growing wave of lawsuits about cigarette smoking in the 1960s and sat on its board. Shortly before accepting his appointment to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon in 1971, Powell wrote a now-infamous memo to a friend at the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the bastion of corporate America. The “Powell Memo” kicked off the four-decade assault by the corporate elite and the 1% that stifles American democracy today.
Under the title “Attack on American Free Enterprise System,” Powell explained, “‘No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack.’ In response, corporations must organize and fund a drive to achieve political power through ‘united action.’” As a lawyer, Powell naturally saw the courts as the centerpiece of the pro-corporate strategy he advocated. “Activist judges” on courts throughout the land, and especially on the U. S. Supreme Court, would roll back legislation such as the flood of new environmental laws.
The corporate campaign rolled out in the years after Powell’s memo in spheres of activity: lobbying Congress, state legislatures, and the public through industry front groups such as the Tobacco Institute and the Edison Electric Institute; electing or appointing pro-corporate judges such as Powell himself; and influencing public education and shaping public opinion through a flotilla of Right-Wing think tanks including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and many others.
Since Powell’s memo circulated in the upper echelons of corporate America in 1971, corporations, primarily the large transnational companies that dominate the Chamber of Commerce, have poured billions of dollars into these activities. However, until his death in 1998, Lewis Powell continued to lead the pro-corporate effort from his seat on the U. S. Supreme Court. In the early and mid-1970s, Powell was thwarted by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, but the tide turned in 1978 when Powell prevailed over strenuous objections from the Chief in a case that firmly established the “right” of corporations to flaunt laws passed to keep them in check by establishing the principle of corporate personhood.
Corporations Are Not People is an activist plea for readers to join the gathering movement to overturn Citizens United, wrest political power from the corporations, and put it back in the hands of people. As Jeffrey Clements sees it, there are “three essential steps to roll back corporate dominance of government: (1) a twenty-eighth amendment to the Constitution that will overturn Citizens United and corporate rights and restore people’s rights; (2) corporate accountability and charter reform to ensure that corporations better reflect the public policy reasons for which we allow the legal benefits of incorporation, such as limited liability, in the first place; and (3) election law reform, including increased public funding, greater transparency, and an end to legal political bribery.”
As an advocate for public funding of elections since 1972 and a long-time participant in electoral politics at every level – local, regional, statewide, and national – I find Clements’ three steps to be right on target. The structural reforms he proposes would strike at the heart of the forces that are strangling our political rights and advancing the interests of the 1% against those of the 99%.
Much of Corporations Are Not People is devoted to the many resources offered readers at the back of the book: the wording of the proposed 28th Amendment; a draft resolution favoring passage of the amendment that organizations and local governmental bodies may adopt; and contact information for the growing list of organizations that are coming together in the new movement to roll back corporate power.
Jeffrey D. Clements is an attorney in Concord, Massachusetts. A former Assistant Attorney General of his state, he cofounded Free Speech for People following the ruling in Citizens United.
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
May 24, 2017
This book is an eye-opener into the workings of the Supreme Court and activist judges like Lewis Powell, who began the push the idea that "corporations are people" while a corporate lawyer for the tobacco industry during the Nixon administration. The author is promoting the idea of a People's Rights Amendment, which would reverse the rulings and provide a means for reforming the whole idea of incorporation. An ambitious undertaking, but worth supporting, and lies at the heart of every other effort to improve our quality of life and our belief in justice for all.
October 23, 2017
Full of lots of good information. History of court cases around corporate rights. Lots of examples of corporations using money for political power. Author doesn't stay objective all the time but citations are abundant.
May 27, 2017
Interesting and informative read about the corporate takeover of our laws and government via the fiction that corporations are people.
August 19, 2018
Interesting but a bit repetitive and a bit too much outrage
March 8, 2021
The law that reversed the power of the people to install the power of the corporations and cemented the axis of evil in charge of America
June 25, 2013
It's one of those books I've been meaning to read, but have had to make myself read before moving on to the books I really want to read. I'm glad I made myself read this book. It's hard to put into words how thoroughly invasive corporations have instilled themselves in politics. The book starts with a history of how corportist culture began to take hold in the United States' political realm starting with a number of decisions by Lewis Powell and the US Chamber of Commerce's excessive and explicit lobbying efforts. The passage of Citizen's United marked a sea change in politics, where corporations are able to influence political decisions favoring profits and turning a blind eye to environmental and social externalities under the 1st amendment unencumbered by fiscal restraints on political donations. I've heard the argument many places that we should not shun those who are "successful" like the CEOs of fortune 500 companies, and that we should celebrate them. The astounding ignorance of these statements is shameful. Exxon, BP, Phizer etc. the list goes on have criminal acts, and I don't mean that figuratively. They have been found guilty of actual crimes. Nike has successfully argued that they may spread false information about their human rights abuses in supporting Asian sweatshops under the 1st amendment, painting a rosier picture of themselves. Corporations have become an albatross to equity and justice for American citizens. From 1947 to 1973 productivity and income increases followed an almost 1:1 ratio. However, from 1973 to 2003, productivity rose 71.3% and income rose a meager 21.9%. The difference going to those at the top. The disparities in wealth should be cause for concern, and the further concentration of power and influence this wealth creates will only continue by letting corporations practices their so called 1st amendment rights. The corporations at the top are transnational, and find every loophole to lower their taxes, as in offshore accounts, and to not be regulated by any law protecting human health or the environment, as in the list of local laws that are superseded by GATT and WTO challenges and disputes. Clements' also addresses the crony capitalism that exists between government and corporations. Most notably Phil Gramm's role in repealing Glass-Stegal as Senator and chair of the Senate Banking Committee, opening up derivative markets by removing regulations. This has been identified as the impetus to the 2008 financial meltdown. Shortly after repealing Glass-Stegal, Gramm moved on, in 2002, to become the vice chairman of UBS, who "in 2009, as a result of a federal criminal investigation, UBS admitted that between 2000 and 2007, UBS participated in a criminal scheme to defraud the United States by helping rich people hide assets so as to illegally evade taxes." Reading this made me feel as if there is too much money and power to do anything. What can I do to make a difference? Clements' proposes a constitutional amendment, the People's Rights Amendment, which would overturn the Citizen's United ruling. You can read about it here: http://freespeechforpeople.org/
June 10, 2015
In this book, which is essentially a 200-page pamphlet for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution, Clements argues quite successfully that the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United needs to be overturned.
The argument goes something like this: the corporatist legal movement was started in the '70s by Lewis Powell, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice. It enshrines the idea that corporate-funded political corruption is actually "speech."
This is why businesses are allowed to do things like block legislation banning smoking ads for kids, refuse to label their shitty GMO food, steal taxpayer money by soaking up guaranteed federal loans for awful for-profit colleges, and more. They essentially take over elections and then dump policies on us that circumvent the public law for corporate profit.
But corporations do not exist in nature. They are a legal fiction created out of thin air by the government to serve a purpose. Their immortality and limited liability are just privileges granted by the law, not rights, and they can be removed by law.
Unfortunately, the only way to do that with the Supreme Court in their pocket is to amend the constitution. It's a tall order, but it sure seems like the rare kind of movement that could actually catch support on both sides of the political aisle. I certainly think it sounds like a good idea.
But yeah, back to the original point: this is more advertisement for a political movement than it is a non-fiction book. But I still recommend it myself and may pass it along to others because I think the movement is a worthy one.
The argument goes something like this: the corporatist legal movement was started in the '70s by Lewis Powell, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice. It enshrines the idea that corporate-funded political corruption is actually "speech."
This is why businesses are allowed to do things like block legislation banning smoking ads for kids, refuse to label their shitty GMO food, steal taxpayer money by soaking up guaranteed federal loans for awful for-profit colleges, and more. They essentially take over elections and then dump policies on us that circumvent the public law for corporate profit.
But corporations do not exist in nature. They are a legal fiction created out of thin air by the government to serve a purpose. Their immortality and limited liability are just privileges granted by the law, not rights, and they can be removed by law.
Unfortunately, the only way to do that with the Supreme Court in their pocket is to amend the constitution. It's a tall order, but it sure seems like the rare kind of movement that could actually catch support on both sides of the political aisle. I certainly think it sounds like a good idea.
But yeah, back to the original point: this is more advertisement for a political movement than it is a non-fiction book. But I still recommend it myself and may pass it along to others because I think the movement is a worthy one.
Read
April 14, 2012Corporations Are Not People - Jeffrey Clements
This book is about the recent Supreme Court decision Citizens United, and the corruption and degradation of the US democracy by corporation and big money interests. This is an important issue that is not getting the attention that it deserves.
This book is good and covers the issues, up from the very basics. It's easily read and good, but not very exciting -- not that a books temperature should necessarily hold you back from reading it.
Especially important to understand these issues going into the 2012 presidential election.
This book is about the recent Supreme Court decision Citizens United, and the corruption and degradation of the US democracy by corporation and big money interests. This is an important issue that is not getting the attention that it deserves.
This book is good and covers the issues, up from the very basics. It's easily read and good, but not very exciting -- not that a books temperature should necessarily hold you back from reading it.
Especially important to understand these issues going into the 2012 presidential election.
July 31, 2014
I received this book from Goodreads First Reads.
This book was very pull-and-tug for me. The author has some VERY well-argued points and I liked the fact that he was giving hope for "real" people to succeed in big-cooperation industries. Yet, there were some very unrealistic facts to it that I couldn't wrap my mind around. At some point, I felt like he was arguing from fantasy ideas and needed to imply more what-can-actually-happen ideas. There was not enough "What You Can Do About It" that we can actually DO. Overall, though, I felt like this book was generally decent and well-written, with some very valid topics that America does need to discuss and evaluate.
This book was very pull-and-tug for me. The author has some VERY well-argued points and I liked the fact that he was giving hope for "real" people to succeed in big-cooperation industries. Yet, there were some very unrealistic facts to it that I couldn't wrap my mind around. At some point, I felt like he was arguing from fantasy ideas and needed to imply more what-can-actually-happen ideas. There was not enough "What You Can Do About It" that we can actually DO. Overall, though, I felt like this book was generally decent and well-written, with some very valid topics that America does need to discuss and evaluate.
March 2, 2021
If you’re unfamiliar with corporate and/or constitutional law and want to understand how corporations have managed to garner so much power in America, look no further. Though the author certainly has an opinion as to whether the legal/political landscape covered here is good or bad for our democracy, he isn’t trying to hide it or act like his opinion is objective truth. Further, he backs his position up with solid supporting evidence. Whether you ultimately agree with him or not as to what we do next, it’s worth the read.
August 9, 2012
Well-researched, copiously footnoted discussion of the Citizens' United case and how we got there. Warning: you'll have to read it in small doses because it will make you feel angry and hopelessly disenfranchised.
I strongly recommend Lawrence Lessig's article from the Atlantic online as corollary reading. Lessig presents a different argument about the same issue.
I strongly recommend Lawrence Lessig's article from the Atlantic online as corollary reading. Lessig presents a different argument about the same issue.
December 19, 2014
Everyone should read this book. History of how corporations got equal footing with natural citizens, how Union power compares with corp. power, and of course, why every person who is not a corporation should demand a constitutional amendment, such as the we the people amendment proposed by Move to Amend, to clarify the law and return our constitional rights to us.
September 30, 2012
This was quite good, actually. It's informative about the hold corporations have on the USA, and the ramifications that the interpretation of the Constitution that led to 'Citizens United' can have. An engaging piece of 'activist literature'.
January 14, 2013
An interesting, comprehensive look at the "Citizens United" decision and it's effect on Corporations and Democracy.
Basically the argument for a constitutional amendment to clarify that corporations are not people, only people are people.
Basically the argument for a constitutional amendment to clarify that corporations are not people, only people are people.
December 26, 2013
Lucid, concise introduction to the history and impact of corporate personhood under the law. Also one of the most painful and infuriating books I've read in a long time. Fortunately it ends with a rousing call to action that keeps it from being unbearably depressing.
February 22, 2012
Detailed and concise historical line on the conscious movement to further the cause of corporate rights and equate money to speech.
May 31, 2012
This book gives hope that "real" citizens, humans, people, have the ability to rule corporations and not the reverse.
January 9, 2014
If you care about our democracy, read this book. It launched me into a level of activism to overturn Citizens United Supreme Court decision and end corporate personhood that I never expected.
goodreads-win
August 1, 2014Goodreads win. Will read and review once recieved.
June 8, 2015
must read. eye opener.
November 19, 2016
A well written and informative look at the "Citizens United" decision. It outlines what the decision entailed, the reasons that it was created, and the reasons that it is wrong. It lays out what corporations really are, and the reasons that they are not and should not be considered people and do not deserve the rights of an individual. A must read for people interested in current politics and corruption.
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