Legal Fiction

In a recent article in the Huffington Post "Corporate Citizenship: How Public Dissent in Paris Sparked Creation of the Corporate Person" Ryan Grim and Mike Sacks
how the Supreme Court decision Santa Clara Count v. Southern Pacific Railroad led to the pernicious legal doctrine that private corporations are "persons" and thus entitled to constitutional protections. This decision handed down in 1886, has had a destructive effect in allowing corporate interests to run over the public interest. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was used by big corporations to strike down child labor laws and other worker protections. The myth of "corporate personhood" is still alive and wreaking havoc. It was recently used by the Roberts Court in the Citizens United decision to say that corporate interests have the right to unlimited spending in elections. Makes you wonder whom the legal system works for.