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Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition

Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition

by Thom Hartmann
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Release Date: June 2010
ISBN: 9781605095608
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Book Description

Unequal taxes, unequal accountability for crime, unequal influence, unequal control of the media, unequal access to natural resources—corporations have gained these privileges and more by exploiting their legal status as persons. How did something so illogical and unjust become the law of the land?
Americans have been struggling with the role of corporations since before the birth of the republic. As Thom Hartmann shows, the Boston Tea Party was actually a protest against the British East India Company—the first modern corporation. Unequal Protection tells the astonishing story of how, after decades of sensible limits on corporate power, an offhand, off-the-record comment by a Supreme Court justice led to the Fourteenth Amendment—originally passed to grant basic rights to freed slaves—becoming the justification for granting corporations the same rights as human beings. And Hartmann proposes specific legal remedies that will finally put an end to the bizarre farce of corporate personhood.
This new edition has been thoroughly updated and features Hartmann's analysis of two recent Supreme Court cases, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which tossed out corporate campaign finance limits.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction: The Battle to Save Democracy
  7. PART I Corporations Take Over
    1. CHAPTER 1 The Deciding Moment?
    2. CHAPTER 2 The Corporate Conquest of America
  8. PART II From the Birth of American Democracy through the Birth of Corporate Personhood
    1. CHAPTER 3 Banding Together for the Common Good
    2. CHAPTER 4 The Boston Tea Party Revealed
    3. CHAPTER 5 Jefferson versus the Corporate Aristocracy
    4. CHAPTER 6 The Early Role of Corporations in America
    5. CHAPTER 7 The People’s Masters
    6. CHAPTER 8 Corporations Go Global
    7. CHAPTER 9 The Court Takes the Presidency
    8. CHAPTER 10 Protecting Corporate Liars
    9. CHAPTER 11 Corporate Control of Politics
  9. PART III Unequal Consequences
    1. CHAPTER 12 Unequal Uses for the Bill of Rights
    2. CHAPTER 13 Unequal Regulation
    3. CHAPTER 14 Unequal Protection from Risk
    4. CHAPTER 15 Unequal Taxes
    5. CHAPTER 16 Unequal Responsibility for Crimen
    6. CHAPTER 17 Unequal Privacy
    7. CHAPTER 18 Unequal Citizenship and Access to the Commons
    8. CHAPTER 19 Unequal Wealth
    9. CHAPTER 20 Unequal Trade
    10. CHAPTER 21 Unequal Media
    11. CHAPTER 22 Unequal Influence
  10. PART IV Restoring Personhood to People
    1. CHAPTER 23 Capitalists and Americans Speak Out for Community
    2. CHAPTER 24 End Corporate Personhood
    3. CHAPTER 25 A New Entrepreneurial Boom
    4. CHAPTER 26 A Democratic Marketplace
    5. CHAPTER 27 Restoring Government of, by, and for the People
  11. Acknowledgments
  12. Notes
  13. Art Credits
  14. Index
  15. About the Author
  16. Footnotes
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