We the Corporations

We the Corporations traces the 200-year legal battle of American businesses to gain constitutional rights and protections. Constitutional law professor Adam Winkler examines how corporations secured many of the same civil rights as individual citizens through Supreme Court cases and legal developments. The book follows key Supreme Court decisions and legal strategies that transformed corporations from chartered organizations into rights-bearing entities. Winkler presents the lawyers, judges, and business leaders who shaped corporate constitutional law through carefully chosen test cases and innovative legal arguments. This comprehensive history explores the evolution of corporate personhood from the founding era through landmark modern cases like Citizens United. The narrative tracks how corporations steadily expanded their influence by claiming First Amendment protections, Fourteenth Amendment rights, and other constitutional safeguards originally meant for natural persons. Beyond chronicling a legal transformation, the book raises fundamental questions about corporate power and the nature of constitutional rights in American democracy. The text maintains scholarly rigor while making complex legal concepts accessible to general readers interested in business history, constitutional law, and corporate influence in America.

Readers describe this book as a detailed history of corporate rights in America, comparing it to the civil rights movement. Many note it reads like a narrative rather than a dry legal text. Readers appreciated: - Clear explanations of complex Supreme Court cases - Stories of key figures and colorful historical details - Balanced perspective that avoids taking political stances - Connections between historical cases and modern corporate power Common criticisms: - Dense legal content requires focused reading - Some sections become repetitive - A few readers wanted more analysis of current corporate influence Ratings: Goodreads: 4.3/5 (1,200+ ratings) Amazon: 4.6/5 (240+ ratings) Representative review: "Presents constitutional history through a fresh lens, though it requires patience to follow all the legal precedents" - Goodreads reviewer Several readers noted the book changed their understanding of corporate personhood, even if they disagreed with the constitutional interpretations described.

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🔹 The 14th Amendment, designed to protect formerly enslaved people, was used more frequently to protect corporations in its first 50 years - with 288 corporate cases versus only 19 cases involving the rights of African Americans. 🔹 Corporations won their first Supreme Court victory for constitutional rights in 1809 (Bank of the United States v. Deveaux), nearly 150 years before the civil rights movement achieved its landmark wins. 🔹 Author Adam Winkler is a professor at UCLA Law School who has been cited in landmark Supreme Court cases and regularly contributes to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. 🔹 The book spent several weeks on The National Law Journal's bestseller list and was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award in Nonfiction. 🔹 The concept of corporate personhood dates back to Ancient Rome, where corporations were recognized as "corpus," or a "body" of people with certain legal rights separate from their individual members.