The news that the Delaware House of Representatives voted to authorize the town of Seaford to give corporations the right to vote fulfills the vision of the future I described in this YouTube video, which kicked off the campaign I ran in 2010 for Murray Hill Inc., the first corporation to run for Congress.
We announced our candidacy days after the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission.
As Supreme Court observer Lyle Denniston wrote in his SCOTUSblog, "If anything, the decision… conferred new dignity on corporate "persons," treating them -- under the First Amendment free-speech clause -- as the equal of human beings."
If that’s the case, we reasoned, why limit the free speech rights of corporate persons to stop at campaign contributions? Why shouldn’t corporations be allowed to vote? Why shouldn’t corporations be allowed to run for office?
The Washington Post quoted me on the front page, and I looked particularly shifty on MSNBC.
Designated Human Eric Hensal and I took the discussion of money in politics out of the ivory tower and into something everyone understands—the nuts, bolts, and language of a political campaign.
We were the first to use the slogan, “corporations are people too,” (we even had mousepads) and we announced our candidacy with a call to action:
“Until now, corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.
We declared our intention to run in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District against then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen. (Eric even debated him).
It turns out that you don’t have to be a registered voter to get your name on a ballot, but you do have to be registered in order to run in a party primary. We went to Annapolis to register to vote as a Republican, considering the party our natural home, but in a 438-word written opinion the State Board of Elections denied our application. We were disappointed, but proud they spent taxpayer-funded lawyers’ time to conclude that "Under Sec.3-102 of the Election Law Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, only "an individual" is qualified to register to vote." They also questioned whether we met the age requirement.
But now, according to this AP story (emphasis added), that narrow-minded, corporeal parochial view of personhood has finally evolved.
The charter change would allow nonresident voting by both a natural person or an artificial entity, the latter including corporations, partnerships, trusts and limited liability companies established in Delaware. Any such entity would have only one vote, no matter how many properties it might own.
It’s gratifying to see states like Delaware come around to our way of thinking. As we wrote in what now can be seen as a prescient analysis of the Citizens United decision,
“The Supreme Court’s majority opinion casts aside the 18th century superstition that we are endowed by a creator with inalienable rights. There is now nothing special about bodied people, no difference between them, corporate persons or toasters. This decision does not elevate corporations, but sets a lower and fair market value on bodied persons.”
Recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action, LGBTQ policies, student loan forgiveness and, of course, abortion are doing more than we ever dreamed possible to promote the hegemony, dominion and unchecked authority of corporations and moneyed interests. What an exciting time to be a corporate person!