Democracy Theme Park

Supreme Court

  • Corporate “Personhood” Must Be Challenged (2009)

    When the “Hillary Clinton film” case is decided, headlines should declare, “Supreme Court affirms corporate personhood.” Instead, most media will call it a free speech decision. “First Amendment rights” will play the Trojan horse hauling corporate freight.

  • Look to Congress for Supreme Court Fix (2010)

    How is it unconstitutional for a state to require place-of-origin labels on meat? Regulate sale of its water? Establish worker protections stricter than federal standards? Where does the US Constitution say that states cannot require that toxic waste be sorted and labeled? Cannot include labor standards in state purchasing policy? Cannot make companies disclose what…

  • Meat, ‘Free Trade’ and Democracy: As Goes South Korea, So Went Missouri (2008)

    In the Spring of 2008, tens of thousands of South Koreans held candlelight vigils every day for over a month to protest being forced to accept beef from the United States. The US government claims that barring our beef is an illegal “trade barrier.” This isn’t the first time the US has resorted to international…

  • Roberts Earns His Keep: The Supreme Court’s “ObamaCare” Decision (2012)

    In the “Obamacare” decision, Chief Justice Roberts masterfully executed what the Zulu call “buffalo horns” – the pincer strategy. Purchase of health insurance is mandatory (a 5-4 vote), BUT states are not required to expand Medicaid to cover the people who can’t afford insurance (a 7-2 vote). The combination is a perfect way to anger…

  • “ObamaCare,” the Constitution, and Democracy: The Heart of the Matter (2012)

    In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Obama Health Care Plan (OHCP), officially the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010). Is OHCP constitutional? What is a defensible and prudent green position on this question? Shrill arguments accompanied several cases challenging the law as they worked their way through…

  • The Pink Oleo Saga: Why So Many Good State Laws Are “Unconstitutional” (and What We Should Do About It) (2008)

    What’s pink, French, and unconstitutional? Hint: The story of this early “frankenfood” provides an advance script for the current global “free trade” frenzy. Over a century ago, its introduction was an occasion for greasing the skids toward establishing a U.S. “free trade” zone, one that is as devastating to local democracy as the WTO and…

  • (Citizens United) Court’s Campaign Money Ruling Is a Red Herring (2010)

    Before running off trying to counter the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), we ought to sort out what this decision does and does not do. The Citizens United decision does make our democracy theme park a little worse, the way having an atomic bomb dropped on your own…

  • Strip Corporations of their Cloaking Devices (1996)

    Who spends the most time in federal courts complaining that their “due process” and “equal protection under the law” rights have been violated? Pushy women? Uppity Blacks? Gray Panthers? Illegal Mexicans? The Sandhill Crane Militia? HIV-positive Navy gunners? You really don’t know, do you? None of the above. Plaintiffs in such cases are most often…

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Jane Anne Morris