More Praise for Corporations Are Not People
“A clarion call to action in defense of democracy, Corporations Are Not People is arguably the most important book on corporations ever written. Essential reading for every citizen and especially for every judge and politician.”
—David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and Agenda for a New Economy
“Question for the Supreme Court: If a corporation is a person, where’s its navel? In their infamous edict in Citizens United, five Supremes obviously went bull-goose bonkers, perverting the Constitution, America’s democratic ideals, and nature itself. But as Jeff Clements makes clear, we the people can overrule them. Corporations Are Not People is more than a book—it’s a democracy manual. Let’s put it to work.”
—Jim Hightower, bestselling author, national radio commentator, and editor of the Hightower Lowdown
“Clements makes a powerful case against the doctrine that corporations enjoy the same free speech protections as individual Americans and lays out in chilling detail the dangerous implications of this doctrine for our democracy. Fortunately, Clements doesn’t leave his readers feeling powerless and instead charts a course to rein in excessive corporate power and reclaim American democracy for we the people.”
—Caroline Fredrickson, Executive Director, American Constitution Society
“Ben Cohen is a person. Jerry Greenfield is a person. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Inc.? Not a person. Why can’t the Supreme Court keep this straight? Jeff Clements tells the story of how some of the biggest corporations in the world took over our Constitution, our democracy, and our economy that used to work for everyone. Best of all, he shows how we can get them back.”
—Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, and cofounders, Business for Democracy
“As a conservative, I support property rights, rule of law, freer markets, maximization of political liberty, and the restraints on man by a virtuous culture but have to question the notion that corporations, which are artificial entities created by the State, deserve the same Constitutional protections as we the people. Corporations, whether unions or for-profit entities, are not we the people. I say three cheers for the people and only two cheers for corporations.”
—Michael D. Ostrolenk, cofounder and National Director, Liberty Coalition
“Corporations Are Not People will inform you, outrage you, and, ultimately, inspire you—to stand up to the multinationals that hoard their profits and externalize their problems, to support an amendment that will enshrine in the Constitution the commonsense dictate of the book’s title, and to return corporations to their proper position as tools of public policy rather than masters of it.”
—Barry Eisler, author of bestselling thrillers including The Last Assassin and Inside Out and winner of a Barry Award and Gumshoe Award for “Best Thriller of the Year”
“There is no better primer to describe how we arrived where we are today and our opportunity to change the direction of our nation.”
—Peggy A. Lautenschlager, former Attorney General, Wisconsin, and former US Attorney, Western District, Wisconsin
“If you are ready to fight back against corporate rule, this book gives you valuable tools to do so.”
—David Cobb, 2004 Green Party Presidential Nominee and cofounder, Move to Amend
“Jeff Clements is the Tom Paine of our time. Corporations Are Not People sounds the alarm for all of us to reclaim the promise of American self-government. Clements presents a strategy and restores our commitment to that basic and powerful idea: that we the people shall govern.”
—John Bonifaz, founder, National Voting Rights Institute; cofounder, Free Speech for People; and author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush
“Jeff Clements has a rare mastery of Citizens United and its profound implications for all of us, and when the moment arose to tell the nation The corporations are coming! The corporations are coming!’ Clements joined the few midnight riders who set out to sound the alarm.”
—Ben Manski, Executive Director, Liberty Tree, and cofounder, Move to Amend
CORPORATIONS
ARE NOT
PEOPLE
WHY THEY HAVE MORE
RIGHTS THAN YOU DO AND
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
JEFFREY D. CLEMENTS
Corporations Are Not People
Copyright © 2012 by Jeffrey D. Clements
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-60994-105-5
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-106-2
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-107-9
2012-1
Interior design and project management: Dovetail Publishing Services
Cover design: Mark van Bronkhorst, MvB Design
For Bob Clements
CONTENTS
Preface
Foreword: Fighting Back, by Bill Moyers
Introduction: What’s at Stake
1 American Democracy Works, and Corporations Fight Back
2 Corporations Are Not People—and They Make Lousy Parents
3 If Corporations Are Not People, What Are They?
4 Corporations Don’t Vote; They Don’t Have To
5 Did Corporate Power Destroy the Working American Economy?
6 Corporations Can’t Love
7 Restoring Democracy and Republican Government
Resources
The People’s Rights Amendment
The People’s Rights Amendment Resolution
Frequently Asked Questions About the People’s Rights Amendment
Organizations and Links for Taking Action
Recommended Reading
Free Speech for People and Appalachian Voices’ Request for Revocation of Massey Energy Company Charters
Notes
Index
About the Author
PREFACE
Of course corporations are not people. Do we really need a book about that obvious truth? Unfortunately, we do.
After the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens U
nited v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, the identity of corporations and their place in our government of the people is not so obvious anymore, at least not to the Supreme Court and to the armies of corporate lawyers pushing for more corporate constitutional rights. And the fact that corporations are not people does not seem to be obvious to too many cowed and trembling lawmakers at all levels of government. There are exceptions, to be sure, but in the face of wildly unbalanced corporate money and influence, too few of our elected officials stand with conviction and firmness to state the obvious about corporations in defense of the public interest.
Citizens United is the biggest and most radical (to use a word from the dissent of Justice Stevens) decision in a regular series of recent Supreme Court decisions in favor of corporations. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court overturned decades of precedent, reversed a century of legislative effort to keep corporate money from corrupting democracy, and upended the American ideal that we are a government of people rather than a government of corporate wealth. The decision, in many ways, symbolizes how far off track we have fallen from our ideal of the American Republic, governed by the people.
In the pages that follow, I hope to show what Citizens United is all about, where it came from, and what I think this triumph of corporate power means for you and for all Americans. Much of the book is about what I see as the devastating effect of unbalanced corporate power, sustained and strengthened by a deliberate, organized, and extremely well funded campaign to transform—I would say, pervert—our Bill of Rights into a charter for corporations as much and even more than for people.
I also hope to show, however, why we do not have to leave it at that depressing juncture. As I describe in Chapter Seven, thanks to the mechanism of constitutional amendment that has come through before when our democracy is on the line, we can fight back to restore government of the people and to save our country. Thousands of people have started that work already, working for the People’s Rights Amendment as the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. I hope that you will join us; the Resources section that follows Chapter Seven offers some ways you can do that.
Many people across the country have taken up the effort to preserve our nation and world against unbalanced corporate power and have shared their ideas, time, spirit, and hard work with me. I hope that all of them will know how much they have influenced this book and how grateful I am, even if I could not list everyone here.
Bill Moyers is at the top of the list of a few who deserve special mention. Bill has been a hero and a teacher for me and for so many Americans. He tells the truth. Calmly and clearly, to be sure, but make no mistake, he tells the truth, out loud for all to hear. He never gives up on the journey of America and of humanity, and his curiosity, determination, and grace make that journey live for all of us. I cannot say how grateful and honored I am to have him write the Foreword to this book.
I am blessed to be part of the Clements family. Thank you to Marilyn Clements and this wonderful extended clan of opinionated, smart, loving, patriotic people, who work hard for the good, stand for principle, and believe in writing and in books. They put in hours helping me to make this one better.
I am deeply appreciative of so many who early on understood the danger of Citizens United and corporate power, who have worked so hard, and who are bringing such hope and purpose to the cause of liberty and democracy. They have picked up the constitutional amendment banner used so well by our forefathers and foremothers. These modern-day heroes do not accept that our generation is less determined or less true to the American cause of freedom and democracy than those who came before. They reject defeatism. They are standing for people’s rights and against corporate rights, and they have inspired much of this book.
One of these heroes is John Bonifaz, a determined visionary and leader. On top of launching Free Speech for People, a nationwide campaign to overturn Citizens United, he took the time to read drafts and helped make this book better than it would have been. I thank John and all of the friends and supporters who are helping move Free Speech for People and the People’s Rights Amendment forward.
Many others generously shared their time, ideas, comments, and criticisms. My colleague Gwen Stowe, associate at Free Speech for People and manager at Clements Law Office, LLC, made far more contributions to all aspects of this project than I can list. Pam Kogut, my old friend and colleague, first at the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and now at Clements Law Office, LLC, provided smart edits and wise suggestions. I am lucky to work with Pam and Gwen.
I also am grateful for the terrific work of Neal Maillet and the Berrett-Kohler team and for many people who provided comments, suggestions, and correction of errors, including David Korten, Daniel Greenwood, Rob Ellman, Shauna Shames, Kristen Mous-alli, Ariel Jolicoeur, Ted Nace, Steve Cobble, and David Swanson. I know that the final product is not everything they might have thought possible, but I also know that it is better thanks to them. Thanks, too, to Thom Hartmann.
Finally, as always, my loving gratitude to Nancy, Will, Sophie, and Ben.
Jeff Clements
Concord, Massachusetts
October 2011
FOREWORD
FIGHTING BACK
Bill Moyers
Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five conservative members of the Supreme Court handed for-profit corporations the right to secretly flood political campaigns with tidal waves of cash on the eve of an election, they moved America closer to outright plutocracy, where political power derived from wealth is devoted to the protection of wealth. It is now official: Just as they have adorned our athletic stadiums and multiple places of public assembly with their logos, corporations can officially put their brand on the government of the United States as well as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the fifty states.
The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission giving “artificial entities” the same rights of “free speech” as living, breathing human beings will likely prove as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling of 1857 that opened the unsettled territories of the United States to slavery whether future inhabitants wanted it or not. It took a civil war and another hundred years of enforced segregation and deprivation before the effects of that ruling were finally exorcised from our laws. God spare us civil strife over the pernicious consequences of Citizens United, but unless citizens stand their ground, America will divide even more swiftly into winners and losers with little pity for the latter. Citizens United is but the latest battle in the class war waged for thirty years from the top down by the corporate and political right. Instead of creating a fair and level playing field for all, government would become the agent of the powerful and privileged. Public institutions, laws, and regulations, as well as the ideas, norms, and beliefs that aimed to protect the common good and helped create America’s iconic middle class, would become increasingly vulnerable. The Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow succinctly summed up results: “The redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.” In the wake of Citizens United, popular resistance is all that can prevent the richest economic interests in the country from buying the democratic process lock, stock, and barrel.
America has a long record of conflict with corporations. Wealth acquired under capitalism is in and of itself no enemy to democracy, but wealth armed with political power—power to choke off opportunities for others to rise, power to subvert public purposes and deny public needs—is a proven danger to the “general welfare” proclaimed in the Preamble to the Constitution as one of the justifications for America’s existence.
In its founding era, Alexander Hamilton created a financial system for our infant republic that mixed subsidies, tariffs, and a central bank to establish a viable economy and sound public credit. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson warned Americans to beware of the political ambitions of that systems managerial class. Madison feared that the “spirit of speculation” would lead to “
a government operating by corrupt influence, substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty.” Jefferson hoped that “we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and [to] bid defiance to the laws of our country.” Radical ideas? Class warfare? The voters didn’t think so. In 1800, they made Jefferson the third president and then reelected him, and in 1808 they put Madison in the White House for the next eight years.
Andrew Jackson, the overwhelming people’s choice of 1828, vetoed the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States in the summer of 1832. Twenty percent of its stock was government-owned; the rest was held by private investors, some of them foreigners and all of them wealthy. Jackson argued that the bank’s official connections and size gave it unfair advantages over local competition. In his veto message, he said: “[This act] seems to be predicated on the erroneous idea that the present stockholders have a prescriptive right not only to the favor but to the bounty of Government…. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.” Four months later, Jackson was easily reelected in a decisive victory over plutocracy.
The predators roared back in the Gilded Age that followed the Civil War. Corruption born of the lust for money produced what one historian described as “the morals of a gashouse gang.” Judges, state legislators, the parties that selected them and the editors who supported them were purchased as easily as ale at the local pub. Lobbyists roamed the halls of Congress proffering gifts of cash, railroad passes, and fancy entertainments. The U.S. Senate became a “millionaires’ club.” With government on the auction block, the notion of the “general welfare” wound up on the trash heap; grotesque inequality and poverty festered under the gilding. Sound familiar?
Then came a judicial earthquake. In 1886, a conservative Supreme Court conferred the divine gift of life on the Southern Pacific Railroad and by extension to all other corporations. The railroad was declared to be a “person,” protected by the recently enacted Fourteenth Amendment, which said that no person should be deprived of “life, liberty or property without due process of law.” Never mind that the amendment was enacted to protect the rights of freed slaves who were now U.S. citizens. Never mind that a corporation possessed neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned (or saved!). The Court decided that it had the same rights of “personhood” as a walking, talking citizen and was entitled to enjoy every liberty protected by the Constitution that flesh-and-blood individuals could claim, even though it did not share their disadvantage of being mortal. It could move where it chose, buy any kind of property it chose, and select its directors and stockholders from anywhere it chose. Welcome to unregulated multinational conglomerates, although unforeseen at the time. Welcome to tax shelters, at home and offshore, and to subsidies galore, paid for by the taxes of unsuspecting working people. Corporations were endowed with the rights of “personhood” but exempted from the responsibilities of citizenship.
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