The day that corporations become people

When despotism gives rise to right and wrong

Google, Exxonmobil, Coca-cola… If it hadn’t been for the events of this day, these famous companies would not exist as we know them. It is May 10, 1886. At the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C., Judge Morrison Waite renders his decision in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. The case is about the taxes that the railway company is supposed to pay the state. What sounds like an ordinary court case is in fact one of the biggest turning points in history. That’s because, when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company wins, every corporation is granted the same rights as a human being. Previously corporations were seen as a type

of project-focused business, so a firm was contracted for a single project at a time. Applied to the present day: Since Google was founded as a search engine, it would not have been permitted to buy Youtube; investment in other areas was banned. And the corporation would have been in service to the common good— so Google would not be able to set up tax havens. With these statutes the nation keeps the corporations on a short leash until 1886— until the end of the Civil War offers them a loophole. The 14th Amendment affords all U.S. citizens freedom and protections. Though it was written with freed slaves in mind, the corporations’ lawyers want it applied to their clients. Judge Waite decides in their favor on May 10, 1886: Corporations have the same rights as people. Says historian Howard Zinn, “This was the beginning of their meteoric rise.”