How do the doctrines of corporate personhood and corporate constitutional rights undermine local democracy?
SOPOCI-BELKNAP: Our constitution is about restrictions on government; government cannot pass laws that violate people’s rights. If corporations have personhood rights, that means government down to the local level can’t meaningfully restrict them. Any laws that restrict corporate harm—be it involvement in elections, an environmental or general community health issue—are subject to a lawsuit and corporate claims that their rights are being violated. Tools that we could be using to protect ourselves, such as democracy and law, are instead out of our hands and there’s no real precedent for that except corporate personhood. It’s a doctrine to get around law.
