Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Yes, Elizabeth Warren, A Corporation is a Person


We left Massachusetts in 1996, but seem to be on a mailing list.

I received a fundraising letter from Elizabeth Warren yesterday.

The front of the envelope has a big picture of her and this quote “No, Mitt, corporations are not people.”

The back of the envelope says “People have hearts. They have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they love and they cry. They live and they die. Mitt and the Republican Party should learn the difference. We don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for the people.”

Yes, Elizabeth Warren is running for the people and the middle class – not corporations.

Yet, it was Travelers Insurance Company she represented for $212,000 before the Supreme Court in the insurance company’s case against asbestos victims.

Remember, she’s for the people eventhough she represented an insurance company against real people.

It’s not Mitt Romney who says corporations are people. Nor is it the Republican Party. As Professor Warren well knows, it’s the Supreme Court and Congress.

The basic principal was set forth in the famous 1819 Dartmouth College case. Dartmouth received a charter from King George III in 1769. The state of New Hampshire attempted to change the college's charter in 1816.

Dartmouth retained its famous alumnus, Daniel Webster, to represent it. Daniel Webster gave one of his great presentations: “It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet, there are those who love it.”

Chief Justice Marshall delivered the decision in1819, which held private corporations have the same right to contract and to enforce contracts as natural persons.

The Supreme Court held in the 1888 Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. case that a private corporation is included in the 14 Amendment definition of “person.” The Court has followed this holding several times.

Corporations are thereby protected by the Constitution with such rights as the First Amendment Freedom of Speech and the 5th Amendment Due Process protections.

In addition Title I, Section I of the United States Code expressly defines “person” to include corporations, unless the context indicates otherwise.

The Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, the bankruptcy expert, must be aware of the rule of law that a corporation is a person in the eyes of the law.

She claims to be 1/32 Cherokee, or is it Delaware, or both? She’s not sure. She listed herself as Native American, but claims not to have taken advantage of affirmative action to get a job.  She did not object when Harvard listed as Native American.

Let’s add it all up.

Professor Elizabeth Warren is just another political wannabe who will say anything to get elected.

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