Is a corporation like a real person? Someone who worries about dandruff, dyspepsia and duodenal disorders?

The U.S. Supreme Court thought so in a decision it made in the 19th century when they gave corporations the same status as the people. They gave them access to the protection of the Bill of Rights that are the first eight amendments to the Constitution. Ironically, in 1789, several of the states refused to ratify the newly written constitution until the rights of the people were specifically stated in the document as well. The dissenters contended that the original Constitution had been written by, and for, the wealthy landowners of the newly formed country.

The 1868 Supreme Court decision that gave corporations the privileges of the people's Bill of Rights came from the passage of the "equal protection law" of the 14th Amendment. It was intended to protect the freed slaves from oppressive state laws after the Civil War. The phrases within the 14th Amendment, "all persons" and "any person," were so broad that the federal court agreed to include corporations in their definition of people, which then protected corporations from an invasion by the government of their personal or property rights.

This writer does not know the circumstances, or influences, under which the 19th-century Supreme Court made its decision, but its impact has been long reaching.

Corporate "free speech" has been interpreted as their right to make campaign contributions and to lobby in Congress. Ironically, people who break laws are usually placed in prison. The consequences of corporations breaking the law is usually a fine that can be written off in their taxes. The increasing demand for tort reform is eroding even more the right of people to sue corporations for their wrongdoing.

There have been attempts throughout the years to draft, and then to pass, an amendment to the Constitution that would strip corporations of their "personhood," and that would subject corporations to the same oversight that had existed for the first hundred years of the newly founded country. As it stands now, corporations enjoy the blessings of the people's Bill of Rights as well as the lucrative returns of the unfettered profit structure of corporations.

The global economic meltdown and the increasing outrage over the excessive payments to corporate executives may make the movement to counter the economic disparity between people and corporations possible now.

As this was being written, the Wisconsin state budget was passed by the state Assembly. The state Senate debated the budget this week. The Assembly passed the budget bill that included a new tax on oil company profit revenues that was not to exceed four cents a gallon.

In contradiction to the governor's intention that the new gasoline tax would not be passed on to the consumer at the pump, but would be assumed by the oil companies, the Assembly removed the ban. If passed by the state Legislature, after clearing the Senate, Wisconsin residents will be helping oil companies pay their state excessive oil profit tax.

(Editor's note: The Assembly's version includes a tax on oil companies that could be passed along to drivers by hiking gas prices up another 4.4 cents a gallon. The Senate removed the tax late Wednesday. A special committee of legislative leaders likely will convene to work out a state budget deal).

It is astonishing! The Wisconsin state legislators who voted for, and against, the oil profit tax should be required to explain their vote that reveals their primary political position more than any re-election rhetoric.

Share the tears for the economic position of oil companies. The 2009 Fortune 500 list was released a few weeks ago in which it was revealed that Exxon/Mobil unseated Wal-Mart as the leading revenue-creating corporation in this country. Texas-based Exxon/Mobil took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, almost 19 percent more than the previous year, 2007. The company also raked in the greatest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion. Yes, $45.2 billion, written with nine zeros.

Do you, as a Wisconsin resident, think you should help oil companies pay their profit tax?

Twenty years ago, an Exxon/Mobil supertanker with a single hull, spilled at least 11 million gallons of oil in the pristine waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska. The spill impacted and destroyed the environment as well as the livelihood and economy for the 22,000 plaintiffs, who were mostly native commercial fishermen. They had, in suing Exxon/Mobil, attempted to recoup their losses. A jury had awarded them $5 billion that was almost equal to the company profits for that year. The amount was cut in half by a U.S. Appeals Court, then finally lowered to about $500 million by the Supreme Court. During all this time of court appearances, 6,000 of the original plaintiffs had died.

Amy Goodman writes, "Exxon/Mobil with its billions in annual profits and armies of lawyers, can tie up the Valdez oil spill case in the courts for decades, while the damaged commercial fishermen slowly die off."

Returning to the subject of corporations who are legally enjoying the benefits of "people" brings to mind the words of Mr. Bumble in the "Pickwick Papers," as written by Charles Dickens: "If the law supposes that, the law is an ass, an idiot."

Blanche Murtagh is a longtime Portage resident and activist who has had many of her stories published.