Why , is the Equal Protection clause of The 14th Amendment extended to corporations ?

Question

The trend of granting more and more rights to corporations continue today at alarming speed .These ideas are embedd in our legal system and talk about change , is just talk . Why not offer a progressive idea for real reform , like a Constitutional Amendment that would stop the bleeding . ( Taken from Joshua Holland , ported on AlterNet / Corporations Aren't People )

Answer 1

because the Constitution is a sacred piece of paper. and every time you folks want to change it, like every GD day, it weakens the power of the people. like in we the people, not your bloated, fat, corrupt ,lazy, good for nothing incumbent politicians.

Answer 2

In the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the clerk of the court wrote in the headnote's of the ruling that the court had ruled that corporations were entitled, as person, to the protections of the 14th Amendment. The court never made that ruling! But since then many a legal decision has been made giving corporations more and more person rights. The same doesn't apply to charities, unions or churches.
There used to be laws limiting the power of corporations....they could only do one thing, not own another corporation, have a lifespan of 20 years then be disbanded and the assets distributed among the shareholders and they could not give money to political candidates or campaigns.
You must remember the the Boston Tea party and the American Revolution was started because of the largest multi-national corporation of the time. The East India Tea Company

Answer 3

Trust me you don't want to really know why. The depth of the power behind who is really controlling our legislators is depressing.

Here is the real answer:
The most powerful lobbyist in the USA are insurance companies. You see this with things such as governors (party doesn't matter) that get lobbied to create seatbelt laws or license check points. Both of which if ever constitutionally questioned would lose.

Recently, Mass. passed a law making insurance actually mandatory for all residents of their state. If a person fails to meet this requirement, they are fined etc... How is that possible? Insurance companies lobbied their Republican governor.

Ok now back to the question, a lot of corporations are wanting to be able to force health restrictions on their employees for insurance purposes. We saw this last year with the case where an employer fired a few workers for refusing to quit smoking even while not on the job.

Those corporations are wanting to have complete legal protection to do this. Insurance companies are lobbying for this hard because of that.

Answer 4

Corporations, by the IRS, are treated like people not businesses.
The business is given its own identity and tax ID number as if it were a person. In part to seperate it from the owner to protect the owner from lots of legal responsiblity. That is that if you are hurt by the company, you sue the company not the owner/s. Opposite from a sole-proprietor who is the business and vise-versa. Now if the government were to grant some rights under the 14th it would be based on this idea of seperateness.

Answer 5

"Generally, the question of whether the equal protection clause has been violated arises when a state grants a particular class of individuals the right to engage in an activity yet denies other individuals the same right." Employers are not suppose to discriminate based on religion, sex, age, etc... Citizens that feel that they have been discriminated against have the right to take the matter to court. The States are responsible for deciding what "class"(age, gender, etc) is a protect class of people. Good luck with your speech!

Answer 6

Thats because the corporations are the ones running our country. The wealty elite.are behind the war, the laws and the loss of our freedoms and privacy. The corporations are getting the tax relief, (Nevermind the suffering middle class), the rights given to corps while the rights are TAKEN from the people.

Answer 7

The 14th amendment say's what congress will NOT do not what it will do. The owner of a corporation has the right to tell it's employees what to do. Like the signs saying "we have the right to refuse service to anyone." That is a personal right. If you owned a business would you want your employees telling you how to run it and what they will and won't do and have no recourse?
If people don't like where they are working they can find another job. However saying that does not mean that you as a business has the right to abuse your worker.

Answer 8

Corporations do not need the 14th amendment as long as they do not discriminate due to race, they can pretty much do whatever they want...

....the only power the employee has is to find another job, and to boycott their product or service.

....In small cities we have by all accounts corporations which are "monopolies"....yet they are legal because they are not monopolies nationwide...case in point, when you have only one gas provider in your city and they can raise the price to whatever they want...

...We need some serious changes to the law, not a constitutional change.

Answer 9

As I understand it a corporation si considereda single entity under the law ie. an individual. Therefore it gains the same rights as any individual would have under the law. Don't necessary agree with it as corporations are using that fact to avoid litigation but thats the way it is.

Answer 10

They are and entity. If you owned something & the government wished to take it away wouldn't you want then to have to go through at least the motions of doing it legally? Corporations are owed by fellow individuals just like you. When you take things from corporations you are taking from them.

Answer 11

Read the "question" 5 times - still cant get what he is asking. BTW- the 14th amendment doesnt apply to corporations....