June 24
1908 – Death of Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States — on corporate power
From his 1888 State of the Union Address: “The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor. As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
1915 – Birth of Norman Cousins, on capitalism and government
“Capitalism in the United States has undergone profound modification, not just under the New Deal but through a consensus that continued after the New Deal… Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.”
Cousins was a U.S. journalist, author, professor, peace activist
1982 – Lewis v. United States [680 F. 2d 1239 9th Circuit] – court rules that the Federal Reserve is private
“Federal Reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of a Federal Tort Claims Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations in light of fact that direct supervision and control of each bank is exercised by board of directors. Federal Reserve banks…are locally controlled by their member banks; banks are listed neither as ‘wholly owned’ government corporations nor as “mixed ownership” corporations; federal reserve banks receive no appropriated funds from Congress and the banks are empowered to sue and be sued in their own names…”
2011 – Posted article on need to create power
“But this is the long war. And politicians respond to only one thing–power. This is not the flaw of democracy, it’s the entire point. It’s the job of activists to generate, and apply, enough pressure on the system to affect change.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/06/evolving/240972/
2020 – “Bayer to pay up to $10 billion to settle cancer lawsuits over glyphosate, the herbicide in Roundup” posted article
“Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, the National Director of Move to Amend, a grassroots political organization that advocates to end corporate personhood, says that Monsanto engages in lobbying efforts to affect glyphosate regulations. ‘Monsanto has waged a sophisticated PR campaign to bully scientists and undermine findings that glyphosate is cancerous,’ Sopoci-Belknap noted. ‘In addition Monsanto and agribusiness leaders protecting the company’s interests have a revolving door relationship with many agencies that are supposed to be overseeing and regulating the corporation.'”
2022 –U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade — women no longer have a right to choose whether to have an abortion after 50 years
The decision was Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
From the Joint Dissent of Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor
“For half a century, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey have protected the liberty and equality of women. Roe held, and Casey reaffirmed, that the Constitution safeguards a woman’s right to decide for herself whether to bear a child. Roe held, and Casey reaffirmed, that in the first stages of pregnancy, the government could not make that choice for women. The government could not control a woman’s body or the course of a woman’s life: It could not determine what the woman’s future would be. Respecting a woman as an autonomous being, and granting her full equality, meant giving her substantial choice over this most personal and most consequential of all life decisions.”
June 25
1903 – Birth of George Orwell, on democracy
“In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.”
Orwell was an English novelist, journalist and critic. His most famous works were “1984” and “Animal Farm.”
1975 – Release date of the film “Roller Ball”
“In the film, the world of 2018 (referred to in the tagline as “the not too distant future”) is a global corporate state, containing entities such as the Energy Corporation, a global energy monopoly based in Houston which deals with nominally-peer corporations controlling access to all transport, luxury, housing, communication, and food on a global basis. According to the tagline, in this world, ‘wars will no longer exist. But there will be… Rollerball.’
“The film’s title is the name of a violent, globally popular sport around which the events of the film take place. It is similar to Roller Derby in that two teams clad in body armor skate on roller skates (some instead ride on motorcycles) around a banked, circular track. There, however, the similarity ends…
“The various global corporations own Rollerball teams, named after the cities in which they are based. Energy Corporation sponsors the Houston team. The game is a substitute for all current team sports and for warfare. While its ostensible purpose is entertainment, Mr. Bartholomew, a high-level executive of the Energy Corporation, describes it as a sport designed to show the futility of individual effort.”
2013 – Supreme Court strikes down portion of Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, [570 U.S. (2013)]
This landmark 5-4 ruling determined that a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. The five Justices concluded that Section 4(b), which identifies locations in the South with a pattern of voting discrimination, was unconstitutional since the formula it used was based on 4-decade old data and not reflective of current realities. The four Justices who voted to retain the Act claimed that voter suppression remains a problem throughout the South.
June 26
2003 – Nike v. Kasky – Supreme Court fails to rule on corporate right to lie
The Supreme Court chose not to rule on a case brought by Nike Corporation concerning their right to political free speech under the 1st Amendment. A California court ruled that state laws mandating truth in advertising (commercial speech) had been violated. The question was over whether ReclaimDemocracy.org, called the dismissal “a victory for democracy and the truth.” Jeff Milchen, the organization’s director said it was “a relief to hear that the court was not prepared to consider even more extreme judicial activism on behalf of corporate America and against U.S. citizens by creating a corporate right to lie.”
The case returned to California where it was settled out of court before trial. The question of whether the 1st Amendment gives a corporation the right to speak untruths remains undetermined.
2015 – Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision – same sex marriage is legal
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a fundamental right to marry in all 50 states is guaranteed under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for same sex couples.
As with all decisions that for the first time guarantees rights to a new group of persons, the decision did not happen in a vacuum, but was the result of several decades of organizing for LGBT rights. A key moment that many believed sparked this social movement was the 1969 Stonewall protest in New York City.
2021 – “Getting smarter and faster – Artificial intelligence and cybersecurity” online posting
“Over time, AIs may become so sophisticated that they will be considered legally and morally responsible for their own actions, whether we understand them or not. In law, it’s already possible for non-human entities to be held legally at fault for wrongdoing through what’s called corporate personhood: where businesses have legal rights and responsibilities in the same way people do. Potentially the same could one day apply to AIs.
“That means, in future, if we can find AIs guilty of a crime, we might even have to think about whether they should be punished for their crimes if they don’t understand the rights and wrongs of their actions, often a threshold for criminal liability in humans.”
June 27
1816 – “An Act to Amend The Charter And Enlarge And Improve The Corporation of Dartmouth College” passed by New Hampshire legislature
The legislation converted private Dartmouth College into Dartmouth University, and ordered the new school to set up public colleges around the state. “Whereas knowledge and learning generally diffused through a Community are essential to the preservation of free Government, and extending the opportunities and advantages of education is highly conducive to promote this end…”
The State Supreme Court ruled that the legislature had the authority to change the charter of the college, “because it is a matter of too great moment, too intimately connected with the public welfare and prosperity, to be thus entrusted in the hands of a few. The education of the rising generation is a matter of the highest public concerns, and is worthy of the best attention of every legislature.”
College leaders appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the decision in the landmark decision Dartmouth College v Woodward in 1819 on the grounds that the college corporate charter was actually not a democratic instrument but a “contract” and that the actions of the New Hampshire legislature and State Supreme Court violated the “Contract Clause” of the U.S. Constitution.
2018 — Supreme Court Rules 5-4 In Janus Union Fees Case
The Janus v. AFSCME decision means the entire U.S. public sector will now be “right to work,” and the political ramifications will be felt for years to come.
2022 – Corporations who helped overturn Roe v. Wade include Coca-Cola, General Motors, Comcast, Walmart and Amazon
“What’s truly gross is that most of these corporations claim to support women, while simultaneously donating money to groups that fought for the repeal of Roe. “
2023 – “Nationwide Momentum Grows To Stop Political Spending by Foreign-Influenced U.S. Corporation” posted article by Michael Sozan
“Across the nation, at the local, state, and federal level, lawmakers are advancing pro-democracy legislation to stop political spending by foreign-influenced U.S. corporations—also known as “FIC legislation.” As the Center for American Progress has written about extensively in a report, fact sheets, and numerous testimonies in state and local legislative proceedings, stopping foreign-influenced corporations from spending money to affect elections and ballot measures is an issue of self-government and accountability that should transcend partisan political divisions…
“In 2020, Seattle became the first jurisdiction to pass FIC legislation at the ownership thresholds described above, after a major foreign-influenced corporation spent approximately $1.5 million—a record-breaking sum—in an attempt to help elect its preferred candidates to the city council. Two years later, in 2022, San Jose, California, conditionally passed FIC legislation. And just last month, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to pass this policy into law, as part of a larger election reform package. In signing the historic bill into law, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) remarked, ‘Today is a great day for Democracy.’
“Similar FIC bills are being debated and making their way through legislative chambers in several other states, including Washington, Hawaii, and California. Notably, for three years in a row, the New York Senate has passed FIC legislation on a bipartisan vote.”
2023 – ‘’Really Big’: US Supreme Court Ruling Against Norfolk Southern Seen as Rebuke to Corporate Impunity’ posted article
“Opponents of unmitigated corporate power celebrated Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Norfolk Southern’s attempt to limit where companies can be sued…
“‘Norfolk Southern asserts that being forced to defend the case in Pennsylvania would pose an undue burden, thereby violating its constitutional right to due process.
“‘Even though Norfolk Southern owns thousands of miles of track in the Keystone State, the Philadelphia county court sided with the railroad and dismissed the case. Mallory appealed, and the case wound its way through state and federal courts before landing at the U.S. Supreme Court last year.'”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/scotus-mallory-vs-norfolk-southern
2023 – “Delaware House Tees Up Bill to Allow Corporations to Vote’ posted article by Sharon Zhang
“After Citizens United, this is another step down the road to corporate tyranny,” one opponent of the bill said…
“The Delaware House has teed up a vote on a bill that would give businesses a vote in the town of Seaford, Delaware — a proposal with frightening implications for elections in a time when lawmakers are increasingly targeting voting rights.
“The bill allows Seaford — a town of roughly 8,500 people — to amend its charter to allow non-resident business owners to cast a vote in local elections, meaning that corporate entities and businesses would enjoy the same voting rights as actual citizens in the town. Rather than the democratic principle of “one person, one vote,” the bill codifies the principle of “one person/entity/one vote,” as the bill text reads.
June 28
1836 – Death of James Madison, 4th President of the United States – on corporations
“There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.”
1934 – The National Housing Act is enacted
A federal housing authority was created during the Great Depression to provide loans and subsidies for homeowners. However, mortgage-underwriting standards discriminate against persons of color and their communities in a process labeled “red lining.”
1978 – Regents of the University of California v. Bakke [438 U.S. 265, 388-89] Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action but forbidding quotas
The US Supreme Court landmark decision upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. The establishment of specific quotas, however, was not permissible.
Justice Thurgood Marshall stated on the decision: “[T]he denial of human rights was etched into the American Colonies’ first attempts at establishing self-government. . . . The self-evident truths and the unalienable rights were intended to apply only to white men.”
June 29
2002 – Publications this month of article “The Struggle for Democracy: Activists Take the Offense” by Virginia Rasmussen
“We’re fed up with behaving like subordinates content to influence the decisions of corporate boards and the corporate class. Having influence is valuable, but influencing is not deciding. We’re weary of waging long, hard battles simply for the ‘right to know.’ Knowing is critical, but knowing is not deciding. We’re tired of exercising our right to dissent as the be-all and end-all. Dissent is vital, but dissenting is not deciding. Influencing, knowing, dissenting, participating — all are important to a democratic life, but not one of them carries with it the authority to decide, the power to be in charge.
…”We’re not taking the subordinate role of asking the Enron Corporation to behave a little better. We’re not content with putting a corporate-designed and -controlled regulatory agency on Enron’s trail. Regulatory law protects corporations from pesky people. It enables and protects the corporate agenda as it was intended to do…If we seek democratic outcomes, we must frame activism in the people’s sovereign authority to rule.”
http://poclad.org/BWA/2002/BWA_2002_JUN.html
2013 – Publication this month of “Public Law to Criminalize Hydrofracking Makes Headway in New York State” by Virginia Rasmussen
“This action is being introduced in towns that passed a protective law zoning out the industrial activity of hydraulic fracturing, an authority granted local governments under NYS Home Rule law. But bans on hydraulic fracturing are no guarantee of true and lasting prohibitions, subject as they are to the vast discretionary authority of regulatory officials appointed by the governor or the executive office.
The move to build a statewide constituency on behalf of criminalization aims not only to make this technology a violation of law with commensurate penalties but to shift people’s relationship to corporations from one of subordination to one of defining and governing the corporate institutions we create. The law would criminalize fracking, frackers and all activities that support and surround the technology: waste disposal, water withdrawal, compressor operations, gas storage, pipeline installation, and more.”
http://poclad.org/BWA/2013/BWA_2013_June.html
2020 – “Supreme Court limits First Amendment rights of US companies’ foreign affiliates” online posting
“The US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 Monday that requiring foreign groups to have explicit policies opposing prostitution and sex trafficking in order to receive federal funds applies to US companies’ foreign affiliates because they do not possess First Amendment rights.”
2021 – “VIDEO: Frederick Douglass’ Descendants Deliver His ‘Fourth Of July’ Speech”
“In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide protests for racial justice and systemic reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s death. That June, we asked five young descendants of Frederick Douglass to read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”. It’s a powerful, historical text that reminds us of the ongoing work of liberation.
“A text version of the full speech is available at https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/
June 30
2008 – Publication of “Gaveling Down the Rabble: How ‘Free Trade’ Is Stealing Our Democracy” by Jane Anne Morris, corporate anthropologist and former POCLAD principal
“The several themes in this book all connect around the subversion of unrepresentative government democracy by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court has usurped from Congress the role of making public policy, with judicial decisions based on the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. These rulings have built a body of law favoring large corporate interests over the rights of states, municipalities, labor, minorities, and the environment.”
As of 2008 according to Morris, 219 state laws had been overturned by Supreme Court just on commerce clause grounds. A complete list of state laws held to be unconstitutional is at http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/047-state-laws-held-unconstitutional.html
Info on the book is at https://rowman.com/isbn/9781891843396
2014 – Burwell vs Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. [573 U.S. 682] Supreme Court decision: being persons, corporations can hold “religious beliefs” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
A landmark decision allowing closely held for-profit corporations to be exempt from a law its owners religiously object to if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law’s interest. The decision permitted the corporation to deny contraceptive health care coverage to female employees. It’s the first time that the court recognized a for-profit corporation’s claim of religious belief. The decision was an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). It didn’t directly address whether such corporations are protected by the free exercise of religion clause of the 1st Amendment.
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