14th Amendment

[Michael Hoover]

> > >>> Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> 05/18/99 12:17PM >>>
> > I have my own 14 Amendment question: Louis Hacker said that the authors of
> > the amendment were railroad attorneys who were intentionally lay the
> > groundwork for the eventual interpretation of corporations as people.
> > Does anyone have information on that subject?

according to James Allen, congressional members John Bingham (prominent 
railroad lawyer) and Roscoe Conkling (successful corporate counsel) 
deliberately framed the wording of the "due process" clause to protect 
corporations...

Allen indicates that the meaning was not generally realized at the time,
but he notes that Bingham and Conkling, both members of the Committee
on Reconstruction, eventually went public with their admissions, the
former in a congressional speech and the latter while arguing a tax case
before the US Supreme Court...

(_Reconstruction: The Battle for Democracy_, Int'l Pub., 1937, pp. 83-84)

Michael Hoover