Unequal Protection

Did Supreme Court sell out America's citizens in the nineteenth century, with consequences lasting to this day? Is there a way for American citizens to recover democracy of, by, and for the people? Thom Hartmann takes on these most difficult questions and tells a startling story that will forever change your understanding of American history. Amongst a deep historical context, Hartmann describes the history of the Fourteenth Amendment created at the end of the Civil War to grant basic rights to freed slaves and how it has been used by lawyers representing corporate interests to extend additional rights to businesses far more frequently than to freed slaves. Prior to 1886, corporations were referred to in U.S. law as 'artificial persons.' But in 1886, after a series of cases brought by lawyers representing the expanding railroad interests, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were 'persons' and entitled to the same rights granted to people under the Bill of Rights. Since this ruling, America has lost the legal structures that allowed for people to control corporate behavior. In this revised and expanded second edition, Hartmann incorporates specific examples from today's headlines and proposes specific legal remedies that could truly save the world from political, economic and ecological disaster.

ISBN 1605095591   Pages 360 ISBN13 9781605095592 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 540 Publisher Berrett-Koehler   Published in San Francisco Imprint Berrett-Koehler   Height (mm) 228 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 154 Publication date 01 Jun 2010   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY 306.340973   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

		Introduction The Battle to Save Democracy		1
Part I		Corporations Take Over		13
Chapter 1		The Deciding Moment?		14
Chapter 2		The Corporate Conquest of America		49
Part II		From the Birth of American Democracy through the Birth of Corporate Personhood		55
Chapter 3		Banding Together for the Common Good		56
Chapter 4		The Boston Tea Party Revealed		63
Chapter 5		Jefferson versus the Corporate Aristocracy		84
Chapter 6		The Early Role of Corporations in America		94
Chapter 7		The People's Masters		116
Chapter 8		Corporations Go Global		130
Chapter 9		The Court Takes the Presidency		152
Chapter 10		Protecting Corporate Liars		162
Chapter 11		Corporate Control of Politics		170
Part III		Unequal Consequences		187
Chapter 12		Unequal Uses for the Bill of Rights		188
Chapter 13		Unequal Regulation		193
Chapter 14		Unequal Protection from Risk		198
Chapter 15		Unequal Taxes		206
Chapter 16		Unequal Responsibility for Crime		217
Chapter 17		Unequal Privacy		222
Chapter 18		Unequal Citizenship and Access to the Commons		225
Chapter 19		Unequal Wealth		237
Chapter 20		Unequal Trade		249
Chapter 21		Unequal Media		260
Chapter 22		Unequal Influence		278
		More...