Term Papers: conceptof a corporation’s legal personhood to the forefront of America’s consciousness
The Fifth Amendment states that “No person shall” suffer deprivation of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law. Implicit in “liberty” are an abundance of other rights be they
specially protected by other amendments, derived from the natural rights we have as citizens, or
otherwise created at law or by courts. Two highly controversial Supreme Court cases,
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, brought the conceptof a corporation’s legal personhood to the forefront of America’s consciousness. While corporate personhood is not a new concept, just what rights that “personhood” should entail has recently been catapulted from the pages of legal journals to our dinner table conversations, Presidential Debate stages, and even our ballots. Your task for this research paper is to answer the following question:
Should corporations be considered to have legal personhood more or less equal to that of a human?
Focus your research on legal and policy sources. Your paper should provide an overview and
interpretation of the legal foundation for why and to what extent corporations have legal
personhood, your opinion supported by evidence for whether the current American approach to corporate personhood is correct, and how/what you would or would not change in the legal
