"Founding Fathers of the United States"

“Many critics of Citizens United believe that corporations have the same rights as individuals because the Supreme Court defines them as people. The proposed constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United is based on this idea... Yet corporate personhood has played only a secondary role in the corporate rights movement. ...ustices have more often relied upon a very different conception... an association capable of asserting the rights of its members. This... has paved the way for the steady expansion of corporate rights. Indeed, corporate personhood has traditionally—and surprisingly—been used to justify limits on the rights of corporations.”

“he Citizens United and Hobby Lobby cases are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.”

“n Citizens United... justices ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend their money to influence elections. The decision was wildly unpopular, with poles showing an overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans opposed. ...As of 2016, sixteen states and hundreds of municipalities had endorsed a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United...”

“Although a procedural snafu prevented the Supreme Court from issuing a final ruling... justices soon after embraced Conkling's argument... In the years that followed, the Supreme Court would invoke those corporate rights to invalidate numerous laws governing how businesses were to be run, supervised, and taxed. Between 1868, when the amendment was ratified, and 1912, when a scholar set out to identify every Fourteenth Amendment case heard by the Supreme Court... 28 cases with the rights of African Americans... 312 cases... with the rights of corporations.”

“Corporations did not win their constitutional rights in quite the same way as women, racial minorities, or gays and lesbians... pursued their claims in both courts of law and the court of public opinion. To achieve lasting constitutional change... required more... Lawsuits were backed up by broad-based, popular social movements that demanded rights for those who had been denied the original premise of We the People.”

“Although Americans often think of the Supreme Court as a bulwark to protect minority rights against the tyranny of the majority, the court's record... was dishearteningly bad prior to the 1950s. For most of American history, the Supreme Court failed to protect the dispossessed and marginalized... he court's record on corporate rights was much different. In 1809... corporations won that first case—and have compiled an impressive list of victories... he court has insisted that broad public sentiment favoring business regulation must bend to the demands of the Constitution.”