Take this fun true or false quiz to bone up on your knowledge of corporate rights!


1. County Commissioners are the democratically elected authority over all things that happen in the County.

2. The corporation, as it was first used in the U.S., was required to operate for the public good.

3. In a split estate system, where the mineral rights and surface rights may have different owners, the mineral estate is by law the dominant estate.

4. There are several states whose constitutions specifically ban corporations from engaging in certain business activities.

5. No municipality has ever banned corporations from conducting particular businesses within its boarders.

6. Corporations are mentioned in the Constitution as having the rights of natural persons.

7. Money equals free speech.

8. Rosa Parks applied for a permit to sit at the front of the bus.

9. A corporation is allowed to deduct legal fees (like those incurred when it sues against regulation it thinks is "too strict") and fines for violations as business expenses.

10. The abolitionists sought regulation to mitigate the harmful effects of bondage on slaves.

Answers:


1. False. Despite the section in the New Mexico Constitution which reads "all political power is vested in and derived from the people: all government right originates with the people, is founded upon their will and is instituted solely for their good," the County Commissioners are considered to be the local administrators of State authority. That is, they can only legislate matters over which the State has specifically given them authority.

2. True. In fact, originally a corporation was also chartered for a limited time and for a single use. A corporation could not own another corporation. Today, a parent corporation can easily evade responsibility for anything done by a subsidiary corporation.

3. False. Technically, this understanding comes from what is called "settled law," which is the process by which precedent determines future decisions. Because it HAS been decided by judges to be so means that it WILL ever after be decided by judges to be so. There is no other legal basis for the mineral lessee or owner to have more rights than that of the surface owner.

4. True. Nine states in all – Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin – ban or restrict farming by corporations.

5. False. There are several townships in Pennsylvania that have passed ordinances banning various types of corporate activities, as have as a town in Virginia and two in New Hampshire.

6. False. But in fact the 14th Amendment was long ago interpreted by judges to apply to the corporation, giving a corporation the rights of a "person," while those it was written for continued to suffer under servitude. It was only by organizing against power and asserting their own rights in huge numbers that the oppressed have gained any rights.

7. True. The 1st Amendment (free speech), as well as the 4th (search and seizure) and 5th (Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process), have all been "found" to apply to corporations by the Supreme Court.

8. False. No points for getting this one right. It's rather obvious. The point being that real, substantial change is not made by working within the "system."

9. True. Can you deduct a traffic ticket if you got it while speeding to work?

10. False. Again, no points for this one. Can a thing sound any more silly?