June 2006

by Melissa Roberts and Karen Pickett

The U.S. public is becoming increasingly aware of federal corruption (in both the executive and congressional branches), but few are aware of a group of heavy-handed manipulators of State legislation: a corporate-funded organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a conservative public policy lobbying group funded by over 300 corporations which writes and promotes hundreds of pieces of state legislation that serve the corporate agenda. ALEC provided models for over 3,100 pieces of legislation introduced, and more than 450 . . .

May 2006

interview by Emma Hendrickson

Rich CorporateSon, Inc. is a corporation running in this year's gubernatorial race in Oregon. This unusual candidacy, the creation of the Oregon-based End Corporate Personhood (see sidebar, "Behind the Rich CorporateSon, Inc. Candidacy"), highlights the absurdity and dangers of current laws regarding corporate personhood. The campaign website is at http://www.VoteCorporate.org . The following interview is with Rich CorporateSon, Inc.'s campaign manager, Hal Burton.

What is Rich CorporateSon, Inc. and why is it running?

January 2006

by Robert Jensen

While the great battles fought over the First Amendment's religion and free-speech/-press clauses are some of the most inspiring stories told 'round the legal campfire, the amendment's assembly and petition clauses are mostly a forgotten footnote.

There has been no great legal battle in easy memory over the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." In 1939, the Supreme Court decided a case, Hague v. Congress of Industrial Organizations, that definitively established "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" in public . . .

September 2005

Ask a friend or colleague to define the term "corporation". Most will define it as a large company with limited liability. Ask if corporations should be defined as persons, with the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the rest of us, and you might just get some laughs.

The truth, unfortunately, is hardly a laughing matter. Thanks to an 1886 Supreme Court misappropriation*, today's corporations enjoy many of the very same human protections and privileges as you and I. Add these legally defensible and even exploitable constitutional rights to a corporation's endless . . .