1. Does the Bill of Rights pertain to corporations as well as individuals? If yes, implications?
2. What
are issues if we identify Church
as
a corporation?
Initially I thought one posting of SYNERGY would
be sufficient to reflect on
both questions/issues. However, it became apparent that such would
be
too superficial& simplistic. Thus, I will be addressing them in
multiple postings.
Challenge
1 Does the Bill of Rights
pertain to corporations
as well as individuals?
It
is very likely that the folks founding our nation would
not have assumed such
pertinence. Major factors
in
leaving Europe and in
seeking independence from Great Britain
were to assert the “inalienable” rights of the individual person against large power groups – i.e. church, government,
business. “Inalienable” means that such “rights” are “incapable of being transferred
to
another” [Random House Dictionary of the English Language].
Thom
Hartmann, author of Unequal
Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and
the Theft of Human Rights, said that “the extraordinary experiment that was the basis of American democracy in
a constitutionally
limited republic was to flip” the historic manner of control upside down! That is – large institutions had
“rights”; the common people only had “privileges which
could “be revoked
more-or-less at will by the holders
of he rights”.
That’s what the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights did. Only humans could
hold rights –
all
others [e.g.
institutions] only had
privileges.
Further, in the first 100
years of our nation corporations could only exist for
40 years so as to prevent accumulation
of such wealth as to enable them to
control persons.
Further, their very first purpose for existence was to serve the public! The second
porpoise
was to make money.
Their books were to
be open for inspection
and their leaders could be held liable
for “crimes committed by
the corporation”.
That legal doctrine held until the end of the 18th century.
A second
reason as to
why
the founders might not have accorded rights to corporations/large institutions was their scarcity. At the time of Independence there were only seven [7] chartered
businesses –
and the first
‘purely’ “American industrial corporation, the Boston Manufacturing Company, was established in 1813!
However,
the
definite trend in our nation
is
to grant such
rights! Nike and Sinclair Broadcasting have asserted
they have First Amendment rights of free speech; Dow Chemical asserted it has Fourth Amendment
privacy rights so as to refuse permission for the EPA to have surprise inspections re: pollution; J.C.
Penney asserted Fourteenth Amendment rights; tobacco &
asbestos companies assert Fifth Amendment rights to
keep
secret aspects of their products which are
harmful. All but Nike
were successful!
Today, legislatures and courts routinely affirm that [to borrow a phrase from Mitt Romney] “corporations
are
people”.
Thus,
the
assertion
by Roman Catholic Bishops and certain Evangelical groups that the demand to
include
birth control coverage in their health care plans violated their First Amendment Right –
that government shall pass
no law impinging on
the
freedom of religion – is reflective of present-day legal reality in
this nation.
The
people who fled Europe sought religious freedom from the perceived
tyranny of large institutions.
And, the Boston Tea Party was actually a rebellion
against a tax break for the East India Company They were
not fighting against a tax “increase” –
but
a “decrease” which gave it an advantage over smaller shops and
businesses! Thus, it was a rebellion against restoring greater control to
large corporations.
That “largeness” or “growth” hightlights the most dangerous implication
when
we
grant ‘personhood’ to
corporations!. The Declaration
of
Independence, the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights stress the importance
of equality for this American
experiment to work.
While each of us must deal with our humanity,
corporations can live for generations. Their size – now spanning many nations –
makes it extremely difficult for an individual to
do battle. Corporations can out-spend us
in campaign financing as well as election
campaigns;
they
can employ countless attorneys to
keep us at bay; and,
serve such importance in jobs that few wish to upset
the balance which
keeps our neighbors at work!
This
need for equality has always been a struggle.
It
is a struggle for Justice.
And we
dare
not relax!
