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Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It Paperback – December 24, 2011

by Jeffrey D. Clements (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings
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Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy from Big Money and Global Corporations
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NEW EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED
Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that the rights of things—money and corporations—matter more than the rights of people, America has faced a crisis of democracy. In this timely and thoroughly updated second edition, Jeff Clements describes the strange history of this bizarre ruling, its ongoing destructive effects, and the growing movement to reverse it. He includes a new chapter, “Do Something!,” showing how—state by state and community by community—Americans are using creative strategies and tools to renew democracy and curb unbalanced corporate power. Since the first edition, 16 states, 160 members of Congress, and 500 cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and the list is growing. This is a fight we can win!
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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  4. Publication date
    December 24, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1609941055
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1609941055
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Clements is a cofounder of Free Speech for People, a nonpartisan campaign to reverse Citizens United, work for equal citizenship for all Americans, and reform corporate law. An attorney, Jeff has represented and advocated for people, businesses, and the public interest since 1988.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berrett-Koehler Publishers; First Paperback Edition (December 24, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1609941055
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1609941055
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.035 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

About the author

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Jeffrey D. Clements

Jeffrey D. Clements

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Jeff serves as President of American Promise, a cross-partisan national organization that helps Americans come together to in the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to ensure that people, not money, govern America.

He has practiced law for three decades in public service and private practice, and is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations. He is also the founder of Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides sustainable financing to businesses in the local agriculture economy. Previously, Jeff has been a partner in a major Boston law firm and served as chief of a 100-person public law enforcement bureau in the Attorney General’s Office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Jeff has helped found and been a board member of many non-profit organizations. Today, in addition to the board of American Promise, he serves on the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord, Massachusetts. He graduated with distinction in History and Government from Colby College, and magna cum laude from the Cornell Law School. He lives in Concord.

Twitter: @ClementsJeff

http://www.americanpromise.net/

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
44 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the content insightful, informative, and motivational. They describe the book as good, worth reading several times over, and important. Readers also mention it's easy to read and understand.

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12 customers mention "Enlightened content"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, informative, and motivational. They say it's an excellent analysis of corporations. Readers also mention it's an intelligent, reasoned, thorough, and complete handbook.

"...It is an inspiration and an invitation. Read it and you will want to do your part in creating a legacy worth leaving to our progeny...." Read more

"A short book, but it has a lot of very good and useful information in it. Read it!" Read more

"...The book is well written and reads very easily. It's a great history lesson and a very important book that all should read.[..." Read more

"...This is a fair and reasonably complete description of how we have been taken over by economic interests, supported primarily through rulings of the..." Read more

7 customers mention "Value for money"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book good, worth reading several times over, and important. They also say it's well-written.

"A short book, but it has a lot of very good and useful information in it. Read it!" Read more

"...This is another well written book about the rise of corporate influence in the government over the last 30-40 years...." Read more

"...shenanigans to ponder upon in this book and it's worth reading several times over because you will learn something new from it each time...." Read more

"...It's a great history lesson and a very important book that all should read.[..." Read more

5 customers mention "Readability"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They say it's well-written and insightful.

"...The book is well written and reads very easily...." Read more

"...These are clearly cogently and calmly made available in this book -- all should read it." Read more

"...Concise and clear Jeff brings his years of experience to illuminate what is probably our largest crisis in American politics--the co-opting of our..." Read more

"...It is well written and insightful...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Robert Riversong
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, Educational, Inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2012
Verified Purchase
As a social-change activist since 1969, and one who has been studying and writing about "The Pernicious Fiction of Corporate Personhood" for many years, I can heartily recommend Jeff Clement's book. It brings the work of the late Richard Grossman (Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy) and Thom Hartmann (Unequal Protection) up to the present moment, lucidly explains the effect of corporate dominance on our daily lives, and paves a path for all those who care about restoring our "improbable" experiment in republican democracy both back to its foundations and forward to its promise.

With clarity and eloquence unexpected in such a treatise, Jeff Clements articulates a positive vision and a practical guide for Tea Partiers and #Occupiers alike to join hands in the most important work that American citizens can take on at this pivotal moment in our common journey. It is an inspiration and an invitation. Read it and you will want to do your part in creating a legacy worth leaving to our progeny.

In 1776, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense, which laid out the historical precedents and current sad state of affairs of America, and proposed that we unite in drawing a line and standing together for "the rights of mankind and of the free and independent states of America". That pamphlet inspired a revolution. Two hundred thirty-six years later, almost to the day, Jeffrey Clements published another clarion call for restoring our human rights and the independence of our nation, with a similarly common sense strategy for a second American revolution.
27 people found this helpful
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Jerry Brookman
4.0 out of 5 stars Read it!
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2014
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A short book, but it has a lot of very good and useful information in it. Read it!
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J. M. Alexander
5.0 out of 5 stars Do we really want our government to be more like corporations?
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2012
Verified Purchase
CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE- Why They Have More Rights Than You do and What You Can do About It, by Jeffrey D. Clement

This is another well written book about the rise of corporate influence in the government over the last 30-40 years. It's themes are similar to those in Republic Lost and Winner Take All Politics, other recent works on the subject, and cites many of the same statistics. It points out the Founders' fear of the power of corporations, and also sees the 1970's as the "tipping point" for corporations-the time they decided to forcefully band together and change the political landscape. The author (a lawyer) picks Earth Day in 1970 as the catalyst for a great deal of regulatory changes, thus prompting the corporate reaction to these restrictions.

He takes the time to explain that corporations are creations of statute, given certain advantages, such as limited liability, and an ease of raising capital, that makes them efficient economic entities. But, just as these entities are created by statute, they can, or at least should be able to be regulated by statutes. He sees them only as economic tools, and feels that they were never intended to have Constitutional, as opposed to statutory protections. He cites a great deal of history, both in cases and comments by the Founders and presidents, that deny any "personhood" to corporations.

But he also traces a post civil war evolution of corporate rights based on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, a provision arguably never intended to reach corporations as opposed to people. The seminal case for corporate constitutional rights was Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific, but the author feels that it obviously relied on state law, and is not a basis for extending constitutional rights to corporations.

He then notes that the judicial drive toward greater corporate constitutional rights was the "brainchild" of the late Justice Lewis Powell. Before going on the bench, he was counsel to many corporations, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. In a 1970 memo to the Chamber he said that corporations had to organize and get more power, and that "an activist minded Supreme Court could shape social, economic and political change to the advantage of corporations". The memo never came up during his confirmation. The author then sees Powell as the leader on the court in expanding corporate constitutional rights, including rights of free speech. Surprisingly, justice Rehnquist was opposed to such expansion and wrote a number of dissenting opinions. The author sees this extension of speech rights as one of the basic problems with corporations. He points out a number of cases where statutes were invalidated as violative of corporate rights to free speech. One was an opinion striking down a statute limiting the right of cigarette companies to advertise near schools. He also cites a Vermont case where the state passed a statute requiring milk that used a synthetic hormone in its production to reveal such fact on its label. Monsanto, the maker of the hormone, challenged the law, arguing that it had the constitutional right not to speak on such subject. The law was invalidated by the Federal court, but I think did not go to the Supreme Court.

The author then goes into the explosion of political spending by corporations and corporate fronts-a situation made much worse by the Citizens United case. He proposes a three pronged approach to remedy the problems. First, we need to pass a constitutional amendment declaring that the bill of rights applies only to natural persons. Next, we must utilize existing laws to suspend corporate charters when the companies do not act in the public interest, and also enact national standards for corporations that reach a certain size. Last, we must pass public financing of campaigns. He also notes that many of these goals are not partisan, that libertarians and tea party members do, or would support them.

He notes a number of organizations seeking such goals, and also gives extensive references. It's not clear how coordinated these efforts are, but there seem to be too many groups involved. It would be good if a strongly coordinated effort could be made, since, absent that, there is no chance to change a status quo that is supported by most of the country's wealth, if not a majority of its people.
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BlackJack21
5.0 out of 5 stars The Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission decision is Tantamount to Fascism:
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2012
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Jeffrey D. Clements hits the nail on the head with this book. Corporations are not people and they shouldn't be considered people! They are entities who receive a charter granting them as a body, certain powers and privileges from government. Knowing that this is the case we have to be cognizant of the fact that the Citizens United decision has eviscerated our constitutional right to fair elections considering it allows Corporations to spend exorbitant amounts of money influencing elections and lobbying politicians. This Supreme Court ruling must not stand according to Clements, and he offers solutions on how we can overturn this ruling.

Clements proposes that the American people get behind the idea of ratifying a 28th Amendment to the Constitution, which would define what a Corporation is and what rights it has as a Corporation, making sure that it doesn't impede on the rights of individuals to enacting laws in their state that they would deem necessary insofar as protecting their interest. The only way we can rescind the Citizens United ruling according to Clements is through a grassroots effort, which is growing as more people become aware.

Corporate fascism has nearly eviscerated unions as we know it considering only 7 percent of private sector workers are unionized. Moreover, only 35 percent of public sector workers are unionized. But let's not forget that unions also participate in lobbying for their own political interest, however, they lack the spending power most Corporations have and they are lobbying on behalf of its members in the hopes of protecting them from corporate disenfranchisement. If you look at the chart on page 81 of this book you will see the top 20 corporate lobbying spenders in Washington from 1998-2010.

Citizens United is a so-called nonprofit corporation organized under Virginia law, and when they petitioned the Supreme Court for an address it opened the floodgates for corporations to have unlimited power over the body politic in America. Clements' writes, "In 2010 in Citizens United v.s Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court proclaimed that the American people are not permitted to determine how much control corporations may have over elections and lawmakers." In a 5 to 4 decision, the Court "struck down" the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (aka) the McCain-Feingold bill. The Court deemed that the Act was unconstitutional. "The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act banned `electioneering' spending by corporations for or against specific candidates within sixty days of a federal election." The law's intent was to stop corporations from circumventing a previous "prohibition on corporate political contributions to candidates, passed in 1907."

Citizens United brought this case to court because they wanted to run attack ads "against Hillary Clinton, who was running for president when the case began." They claimed "the law violated the First Amendment right of free speech because it prevented (them, a so-called not-for-profit corporation,) from engaging in electioneering activity," and this Supreme Court directive has metastasized into the Super-PAC situation that the election campaigns are suffering from. It is this very reason why Mitt Romney was able to outspend his competition during the republican primary.

Clements claims this particular corporate subterfuge started in the 1970's and it took them forty years to finally satisfy their insatiable proclivities for power and influence, which means the usurpation of our electoral process. Furthermore, the U.S. shouldn't be held to the standard, or jurisprudence of the "Delaware Incorporation Law." This law's sphere of influence is vast and the Corporations are using it as an apparatus to circumvent rules and regulations.

Overall, there's a lot of corporate shenanigans to ponder upon in this book and it's worth reading several times over because you will learn something new from it each time.

Excellent Read!!!!

Other Books that should be read along this one are as follows:

Noam Chomsky: "Profits Over People."

Greg Palast: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy."

Ralph Nader: "The Good Fight."
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