:09:01
realized that they needed
more power to operate
:09:03
And wanted to remove some
of the constraints
:09:07
that had historically been
placed on the corporate form.
:09:12
The 14th amendment
was passed
:09:13
at the end of the Civil War
:09:15
to give equal rights
to black people.
:09:19
And therefore it said
:09:21
No state can deprive
any person of life
:09:24
liberty or property
without due process of law.
:09:27
And that was intended
to prevent the states
:09:29
from taking away life
liberty or property
:09:32
from black people
as they had done
:09:34
for so much of
our history.
:09:37
And what happens is the
corporations come into court
:09:40
and corporation lawyers
are very clever.
:09:42
And they say
:09:43
Oh you cant deprive
a person of life
:09:46
liberty or property.
:09:48
We are a person.
:09:49
A corporation is a person.
:09:50
And so supreme court
goes along with that.
:09:54
And what was particularly
grotesque about this was
:09:58
that the 14th amendment
was passed
:10:01
to protect newly
freed slaves.
:10:04
So for instance
between 1890 and 1910
:10:08
there were 307 cases brought
before the court
:10:13
under the 14th amendment.
:10:14
288 of these brought
by corporations
:10:18
19 by African Americans.
:10:26
600000 people were killed
to get rights for people
:10:32
and then with strokes of
the pen over the next 30years
:10:35
judges applied those rights
to capital and property
:10:40
while stripping them
from people.
:10:57
Everybody makes a mistake
once in a while
:10:59
but I just cant be
personally responsible.