Introductory) What is a corporation? In what case did the court determine the rights of corporations? When was it decided? 2. (Advanced) What is the definition of legal personhood? What rights do corporations have? What is the value to society? 3. (Advanced) What was the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s decision? What area of the Constitution applies? How does it apply? 4. (Advanced) What were possible implications if the court had decided otherwise? What could be different and how could things be different – from legal, business, and societal perspectives?
In a decision by Chief Justice John Marshall, the court saved the school from the state of New Hampshire’s hostile takeover. According to Marshall, the court was duty-bound to defend the college’s independence because its corporate charter was protected by the Constitution’s prohibition on state laws “impairing the obligation of contracts.” Dartmouth as an institution—not the teachers, trustees or students, but the corporation itself—had rights the court was obliged to uphold. Although he did not use the exact words, Marshall clearly affirmed the principle that corporations are legal persons. “A corporation,” he explained, “is an artificial being” existing “in contemplation of law” and possessing a certain “individuality.” Its legal existence necessarily entailed its possession of some rights that are also held by “natural persons,” such as a right to hold and transmit property and a right to sue in the courts in defense of its other rights.
