{"id":48456,"date":"2026-05-29T11:37:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48456"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:37:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:37:41","slug":"logical-conclusion-of-citizens-united-as-delaware-judge-lets-corporations-vote-in-local-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/logical-conclusion-of-citizens-united-as-delaware-judge-lets-corporations-vote-in-local-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Logical Conclusion\u2019 of Citizens United as Delaware Judge Lets Corporations Vote in Local Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Rally<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Protesters rally against corporate personhood and money in politics in Washington, DC on January 21, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaware is home to more corporations than people. Human people, that is, as under longstanding state law and the US Supreme Court\u2019s infamous 2010 ruling, corporations are people, too.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 27, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge in Delaware\u2014a state with more registered business entities than people\u2014ruled Monday in favor of a small town that allows corporations to vote in local elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz ruled<\/a> that the town of Fenwick Island, population 400, did not violate the state Constitution by permitting business entities\u2014which make up 12% of the town\u2019s \u201cpopulation\u201d\u2014to vote in municipal elections, as case plaintiff the ACLU of Delaware had claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rally<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big News\u2019: Hawaii Targets Citizens United With Law Clarifying Corporations Are Not People<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Creep<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Creep State Is Watching\u2019: Guerilla Art Project Takes on Big Tech\u2019s Power Grab\u200b<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is a \u2018person?\u2019 When one cuts to the heart of this case, that is the question,\u201d Karsnitz wrote to open his 20-page ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/embed\/did:plc:pmve46444ieqvq7sqvqqdlfd\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mmuettpiy223?id=7214338337364621&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252Fcorporations-can-vote-in-delaware&colorMode=system<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to the law, a person is anyone or anything that can initiate and be subject to legal proceedings. By this conception, any adult, corporation, or institution is a person, but a minor is not a person, a fetus is not a person, and a humanoid robot… is not a person,\u201d the ruling continues. \u201cThis highlights that legal personhood is dependent solely on legal recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge noted that in 2008, the Delaware General Assembly amended Fenwick Island\u2019s charter \u201cto expand its voter registration rolls to allow individuals to cast votes on behalf of trusts, limited liability companies, partnerships, and corporations that own property in Fenwick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, the overwhelming majority of legal entity property owners in Fenwick registered to vote, and on whose behalf votes are cast, are trusts,\u201d Karsnitz added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI appreciate that Plaintiff may disagree with Delaware\u2019s policy of authorizing certain municipalities to allow voting on behalf of entity property owners,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVisions of faceless large corporations, or even HAL, controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science<\/a> fiction,\u201d he continued,\u201c referring to the malevolent artificial intelligence-powered computer<\/a> in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1968 film version of Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>. \u201dHowever, Plaintiff has not demonstrated that this policy violates the principle of one person\/entity\/one vote.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiff points to no other persuasive independent authority than the Elections Clause of the Delaware Constitution itself,\u201d Karsnitz concluded. \u201cAnd matters of policy are appropriately left to legislative bodies, not the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger told<\/a> Reuters earlier this year that \u201ca property owner who pays taxes and is subject to our ordinances should have a say in who represents them on our Town Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the ACLU of Delaware contends<\/a> that \u201cwith over 2 million business entities incorporated in Delaware\u2013roughly double the amount of actual people living in the state\u2013the people of Delaware risk having their voices drowned out when towns like Fenwick Island allow corporate voting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karsnitz\u2019s ruling does not mention Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission<\/em><\/a>, the 2010 US Supreme Court<\/a> decision affirming that political spending by corporations, nonprofit organizations, labor unions<\/a>, and other groups is a form of free speech<\/a> protected by the 1st Amendment that government cannot restrict. The decision ushered in the era of super PACs\u2014which can raise unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns\u2014and secret spending on elections with so-called \u201cdark money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Delaware\u2019s\u00a0corporate personhood<\/a>\u00a0laws long predate\u00a0Citizens United<\/a><\/em>, numerous critics of Monday\u2019s ruling referred to the case,\u00a0including the progressive legal advocacy group Demand Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/WeDemandJustice\/status\/2059724133584224332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2059724133584224332%7Ctwgr%5E4e92816ecff2b8c3f0d430bec9992f6f3d6f4f27%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fcorporations-can-vote-in-delaware<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCorporations aren\u2019t people,\u201d the group asserted on X. \u201cThey don\u2019t have kids in local schools, they don\u2019t drink the water<\/a>, they can\u2019t be jailed for crimes, and they shouldn\u2019t get a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some compared Hawaii, where Democratic Gov. Josh Green recently signed legislation<\/a> clarifying that corporations are not people, with Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHawaii made a move to rein in\u00a0Citizens United<\/a>,\u201d writer Van Dennis\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on X, \u201cand Delaware responded, \u201dThe fuck you are.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protesters rally against corporate personhood and money in politics in Washington, DC on January 21, 2015. \u00a0(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images) Delaware is home to more corporations than people. Human people, that is, as under longstanding state law and the US Supreme Court\u2019s infamous 2010 ruling, corporations are people, too…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1879],"tags":[1575],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48457,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48456\/revisions\/48457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}