Dred Scott and corporate personhood ~ By Ellis Washington

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Ellis Washington Posted: January 30, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 WorldNetDaily

The negro has no rights which the white man was bound to respect. – Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

I can summarize in five words the Supreme Court's Jan. 23 landmark decision, "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission":

Corporations are persons; money = speech

The First Amendment plainly states, "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech." However, since the 1907 Tillman Act, American businesses and corporations, the lifeblood of our market-capitalist economy for more than 230 years, have had their political voices injustly restricted through limits on how much money they can contribute to political campaigns. Alex Barker, writing for the Financial Times gave the shameful historical background of the Tillman Act:

The 1907 Tillman Act – named after "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, a vile racist senator who made his name rampaging through the South attacking blacks and Republicans with his "Red Shirt" band of paramilitary terrorists – was the first attempt by Congress to clean up politics. Tillman's motive – stopping funding to civil rights politicians – was pretty disgraceful. But the means he sought was supported by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, who were more interested in tackling dirty politics.

The decision in "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" removed unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech of businesses, associations, organized labor and certain advocacy groups with regard to their participation in political campaigns. Regarding this case, the demagogue Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said, "This is the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case." In the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that black Americans who were either slaves or the descendants of slaves could not be, and never had been U.S. citizens. READ FULL STORY >