Corporations didn't always have this much power.

Yes! It's true. Historical Digs will be posted once a week. They will post with one or two questions and a pdf download of a Supreme Court case.  You’re welcome to skip the download (save paper) and do your research online.  These lessons will look at the development of the notion of ‘corporate personhood’.  It has been really controversial throughout history!  We will start digging and work our way up to the present.

I’m also listing two websites that can serve as references for court cases.  I've learned a horrifying, yet fascinating aspect of law in the U.S. as I've researched this. FindLaw (apparently the largest public online research database for lawyers) is rather biased in it's presentation of Supreme Court cases by (sneaky!) inserting the corporate point of view.

http://supreme.justia.com/us
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode

It's fun to do research online because of the hotlinks throughout the cases.  (If you’re reading a case and another one is referenced, you can click on the hotlink and it will take you to the referenced case.)

Notes about these websites: The Justica website sometimes has numerical values that are missing.  The FindLaw website is more commercial and sometimes tries to make the viewer sit through various commercials. 

New Note! At the start of this little project, I thought that some cases were simply omitted from the FindLaw site due to some odd inconsequential issues. As I researched Historical Dig #4, however (see below) I was puzzled by the different length of information that the respective sites presented and began to suspect something more. I looked at the same case from each website and found startling differences, reflective of corporate power in the United States.

Historical Dig #1

Lafayette Insurance Company v. French 1855

This case looks at whether a company or corporation fit within the meaning of a citizen within the Constitution. It's short, and it's a great place to start.

1. How does Justice Curtis explain how the Supreme Court views the idea of a company being preceived as a citizen?

2. Was an opinion made on natural persons and foreign corporations?

Click on the image to the right for the pdf (4 pages). Or go to

http://supreme.justia.com/us/59/404/case.html and/or

http://laws.findlaw.com/us/59/404.html

Covington Drawbridge Company v. Shepherd 1857

There was a lot of talk back then about where a company was incorporated and chartered as well as whether or not it had similar rights in a different state. The Supreme Court once again affirms that an artifical being could not be interpreted as citizen under the Consitution. There is, however, a Justice who disagrees.

1. Why do you think the Justice disagrees, while the others affirm the previous decision? The fun parts are on page 3.

Click on the image to the right for the pdf (3 pages). Or go to

http://supreme.justia.com/us/61/227/case.html to view the case.

This case was not foud on FindLaw (April 08)

Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company v. Wheeler 1861

It seems that a lot of time was spent deliberating upon where a corporation could operate and how the corporation could be represented in Court.

1. Do you think individuals have more or less rights compared to the historical times that were closer to the era in which the Consitution was written? (Keep in mind that certain groups of individuals were not included in its interpretation as having rights, then bring the debate up to the present, weaving in the notion that all individuals as humans have rights, then compare it to the rights of corporations.)

Click on the image to the right for the pdf (3 pages). Or go to http://supreme.justia.com/us/66/286/case.html to view the case.

This case was not found on FindLaw (April 08)

Paul v. the State of Virginia 1868/1869

This is turning out to be a fascinating study of power in the U.S. This will look at the presentation of one Supreme Court case as presented by two different web sites.

1. What significance does this subtle difference in the presentation of information have on the training and beliefs of young law
professionals?

Click on the respective images for the pdf. The first one comes from the justia site. Here's the link http://supreme.justia.com/us/75/168/case.html

The second one comes from FindLaw. Check out the insertion! (I've inserted parenthesis where the added material starts and ends.) Or go to their website and do some reading and sleuthing. Fascinating! http://laws.findlaw.com/us/75/168.html

2. Think about the significance of the different dates listed for the Paul v. the State of Virginia case.

This has been included in the historical digs, because a person has to really sift and dig so see and understand what is going on. Someone received a couple of Republican Party Census Documents and perhaps you won't believe them until you see them. There's not enough room here, but they are on another page.