(One of) the two most important rulings so far by the highest court in 2010…is the infamous Jan. 21 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which validated corporate personhood, or the granting of the constitutional right of free speech to corporations. [after 10 years aggressivelyinvalidating the right of free speech for individuals via the Patriot Act, the Espionage Act, the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, etc.]
Corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution. Its framers had tolerated enough oppression by the King and his chartered corporations. Cases before the high court bearing on this issue date back at least to 1819 when Chief Justice John Thurgood Marshall declared that "A corporation is an artificial being invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law."
Then along came the notorious 1886 case, Southern Pacific Railroad Company v. Santa Clara County, California, that was presided over by Chief Justice Harrison Waite. He told his colleagues before the formal deliberations began that since it was an obvious fact that corporations had constitutional rights, it would not be deliberated.
Afterwards, he let his court recorder, who had railroad interests, insert in the record that "fact." [and that, my friend, is how "careful deliberation" works and, for that matter, how "history" is written]
While (in his letter) Dr. Perloff brushes aside the "financial muscle" and "even overwhelming influence" of corporations as "beside the point;' I cannot do so.
America is a corpocracy of corporate rule with a captive government in tow, not a democracy of self rule. I have concluded from years of research, as have many other researchers and writers before me, that the corpocracy is ruling and ruining America.
