Citizens Intent on Reforming Corporate Accountability (CIRCA)

More Details about Corporate Personhood

"In the early days after [US] independence, corporations were chartered by state legislatures for specific purposes. If a corporation did not fulfill its public purpose, it was put out of business, and the state took back the charter" -- Ward Morehouse, cofounder of POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy)

Before 1886, corporations were limited:

• For specific purposes
• Limited periods of time
• Could not own other corporations
• Accounting was public record
• Investors and owners were liable for all their decisions and actions

Then in 1886, a highly questionable U.S. Supreme Court decision began a process of granting constitutional rights to corporations as if they were living persons. With their rights as persons combined with vastly greater financial and legal resources, corporations now exert much more influence than living people on legislation and court rulings.

Since large corporations have considerably more resources - both financial and legal - than almost any individual, they are able today to act like governments:

• Energy corporations determine our energy policies.
• Automobile corporations determine our nation's transportation policies.
• Corporate polluters and resource extraction corporations define our environmental policies