Cambridge Scholars Publishing Corporations Have Almost as Many Constitutional Rights as Individuals: How Did This Happen?

This book, which will be of interest to teachers, students and scholars of constitutional and business law, explains how, over the past 225 years, US Supreme Court decisions have enshrined corporations with fundamental constitutional rights and transformed those rights from individual freedoms to corporate entitlements. This is a fascinating story that delineates which fundamental constitutional rights accorded to individuals have been extended to corporations and which have not, and parses the US Supreme Court decisions extending constitutional protections to corporations. The book also shows how the views of the Founders have been altered by these decisions, and demonstrates how corporations, like individuals, have used their constitutional protections to evade government regulations. Telling this story in a clear and uncomplicated way underscores how intriguing and compelling the ebb and flow and evolution and retreat of fundamental constitutional rights is, from the time of the Founders to the twenty-first century. About the Author Edward J. Schoen received his BS in Accounting from La Salle University, USA, and his JD from Georgetown University Law Center, USA. He served as the Dean of the McGowan School of Business of King’s College, Pennsylvania, from 1990 to 1999, and Dean of the Rohrer College of Business of Rowan University, New Jersey, from 1999 to 2008. His principal research interests are in the fields of business ethics and constitutional law, with a focus on the First Amendment. Since resigning as Dean and returning to the faculty in June 2008, he has published 18 journal articles. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Legal Studies Education (2017), Southern Law Journal (2019, 2017, 2016 and 2015), Journal of Business Ethics (2016), and the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly (2016). He is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, the most recent of which was the Lindback Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award (2017).