I wrote a blog entry back in August, 2026 (One Person, One Vote. One Person, One Voice.) complaining about corporations having free speech equal to the speech of people. This is important since the court also believes giving money to political campaigns is speech. In that post I suggested a new constitutional amendment to clarify that corporations should not have the same free speech rights as a person.
I just finished the book “The U.S. Constitution” by Melissa Murray which explains the Articles and Amendments using modern language, historical context and commentaries.
I learned when and how corporations became “persons” in a Supreme Court decision, sort of. The Court had over many cases decided that there were different groups that were protected by the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. I believe these were generally groups of people.
In a Supreme Court case Santa Clara County. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S.394 (1886) the Court decided that corporations were entitled to some constitutional protections, but the opinion did not specifically state whether or nor corporations were protected by the Equal Protection Clause.
An official with the court tasked with publishing a summary of the Court's decision stated in the headnote to the summary that all the Justices agreed that the Equal Protection Clause applied to corporations although that was not stated in the actual decision. Chief Justice Morrison Waite approved the headnote and the summary. Corporations were thereafter considered “persons” under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Unbelievable.
I recommend “The U.S. Constitution” by Melissa Murray. It is not a hard read, but I guarantee you will come away with a new understanding of the Constitution, its strengths, weaknesses and, importantly, compromises.
