Chapter 4 The Mastermind: Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field -- Thom Hartmann

[erronis]

https://hartmannreport.com/p/chapter-4-the-mastermind-supreme

A great history lesson from Thom. Well worth a perusal.

If J.C. Bancroft Davis was the triggerman, then Justice -Stephen Johnson Field was the mastermind behind the corporate theft of constitutional rights. He'd spent three decades on the Supreme Court, building the intellectual infrastructure that would transform corporations into constitutional persons.

We must understand Justice Field to clearly see how democracy was hijacked by the oligarchs of that era. But more than just that, understanding Field also reveals the ideology behind the hijacking. This wasn't just a case of corruption or greed, although there was plenty of both. This was, instead, a vision of America fundamentally opposed to the Founders' and Framers' vision of America and explicitly at odds with the possibility of creating a thriving middle class.

Field, like the railroad oligarchs to whom he was beholden, believed that property rights always trumped human rights. He believed the wealthy deserved constitutional protection from what John Adams called "the rabble": the democratic majorities, the "common people." He believed that workers organizing for better wages, farmers demanding fair treatment from the railroads they needed for their survival, and states regulating corporate behavior were all forms of tyranny against the morbidly rich of his day.

His vision was thus essentially feudal: a small class of white male property owners should rule over everyone else, protected by constitutional rights that the democratic majority could never touch.

. . .

[Polybius]

1. Clarence Thomas just passed him too

For 51 years, he was the second longest serving Justice ever, with 34 years, 195 days on the bench.