Three recent Supreme Court decisions, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, have bought the issue of corporate free speech rights to the forefront of our national consciousness. Through all three decisions, corporations were deemed to have the same rights as individual persons as outlined in the Constitution, including the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the freedom to spend money on elections and advocating for political issues.
How did we get here? UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler argues in his new book, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, that corporations have been lobbying for their civil rights since the ratification of the Constitution, decades before women and African-Americans, and utilizing some of the same tactics as individuals: civil disobedience and the American legal system.
Adam Winkler
Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, and author, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
Dan Moulthrop
CEO, The City Club of Cleveland
