WILPF - Des Moines

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Des Moines Chapter

What is Corporate Personhood?

"Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property.
Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person."
Jan Edwards and Molly Morgan, WILPF
(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom)

A flawed interpretation of an 1886 Supreme Court decision has led to corporations claiming the constitutional rights of living persons. Corporations now claim:

1st Amendment free speech rights
4th Amendment protection against search and seizure
5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination
14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection

What does this mean? Here are two examples:

Because corporations have claimed the 1^st Amendment right of free speech they are able to lobby for legislation, influence politicians, and give money to political parties. Our policies are now based on what is best for the corporations with the most money to spend.

Corporations that make our voting machines tell us that under the 4^th Amendment right to privacy we canÕt even inspect the voting machines that determine the outcome of our voting process.

We need to reclaim the lost understanding that corporations are creations of the state, chartered to serve the public good as our servants, not our masters.

WILPF LINKS

National WILPF Site

Home

About Us

Join Us

WILPF Officers

WILPF Mission

Corporate Personhood

Suggested Reading

WILPF Newsletter