Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became ""People"" -- and How You Can Fight Back

Thom Hartmann

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Jun 14, 2010 - Business & Economics - 385 pages

Unequal taxes, unequal accountability for crime, unequal influence, unequal control of the media, unequal access to natural resources—corporations have gained these privileges and more by exploiting their legal status as persons. How did something so illogical and unjust become the law of the land?
Americans have been struggling with the role of corporations since before the birth of the republic. As Thom Hartmann shows, the Boston Tea Party was actually a protest against the British East India Company—the first modern corporation. Unequal Protection tells the astonishing story of how, after decades of sensible limits on corporate power, an offhand, off-the-record comment by a Supreme Court justice led to the Fourteenth Amendment—originally passed to grant basic rights to freed slaves—becoming the justification for granting corporations the same rights as human beings. And Hartmann proposes specific legal remedies that will finally put an end to the bizarre farce of corporate personhood.
This new edition has been thoroughly updated and features Hartmann's analysis of two recent Supreme Court cases, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which tossed out corporate campaign finance limits.

Contents

• The Deciding Moment?: 14
• The Corporate Conquest of America: 49
• From the Birth of American Democracy through the Birth of Corporate Personhood: 55
• Banding Together for the Common Good: 56
• The Boston Tea Party Revealed: 63
• Jefferson versus the Corporate Aristocracy: 84
• The Early Role of Corporations in America: 94
• The Peoples Masters: 116
• Corporations Go Global: 130
• The Court Takes the Presidency: 152
• Protecting Corporate Liars: 162
• Corporate Control of Politics: 170
• Unequal Consequences: 187
• Unequal Uses for the Bill of Rights: 188
• Unequal Regulation: 193
• Unequal Protection from Risk: 198
• Unequal Taxes: 206
• Unequal Responsibility for Crime: 217
• Unequal Privacy: 222
• Unequal Citizenship and Access to the Commons: 225
• Unequal Wealth: 237
• Unequal Trade: 249
• Unequal Media: 260
• Unequal Influence: 278
• Restoring Personhood to People: 285
• Capitalists and Americans Speak Out for Community: 286
• End Corporate Personhood: 290
• A New Entrepreneurial Boom: 297
• A Democratic Marketplace: 309
• Restoring Government of by and for the People: 315
• Acknowledgments: 331
• Notes: 334
• Art Credits: 353
• Index: 354
• About the Author: 374

About the author

Thom Hartmann is the nation’s leading progressive talk radio host, heard on over a hundred stations, as well as on XM and Sirius radio, and seen on live nationwide television via the Free Speech TV network. He is the bestselling author of eighteen books, including Threshold, Screwed, and Cracking the Code.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became ""People"" -- and How You Can Fight Back; BK Currents; BK currents book
• Author: Thom Hartmann
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010
• ISBN: 1605095605, 9781605095608
• Length: 385 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Business Ethics