Since 1886 US courts have treated corporations as constitutional natural persons.

Evidence

Appointed judges have handed down decision after decision increasing the privileges of corporations. Corporations have been granted the power of “eminent domain” and the right to inflict “private injury and personal damage” when pursuing “progressive improvements.” Most significantly, in 1886, the Supreme Court treated private corporations as “natural person[s]” protected by the Constitution and “sheltered by the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.” — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 981

Categorization

• XREF: Corporate personhood (1886) parallels the property-personhood logic of Johnson v. M’Intosh, both doctrinal fictions that transfer power to non-human entities or interests. — connects to: Two centuries of court rulings redefined the constitutional common good as corporate profit. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 980; Powerful corporations have long used the Constitution to fight regulation — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 353; Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 71

Broader Connections

• Powerful corporations have long used the Constitution to fight regulation #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 353
• Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities #expands (0.75) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 71