Portal:Corporate Rights/Constitutional Protections for Corporations, but Not Women?

In a January 2011 interview, Justice Antonin Scalia told California Lawyer Magazine that the 14th Amendment's equal protection provisions do not apply to women (or homosexuals), arguing that gender discrimination is constitutional and can only be outlawed by the legislature. Under Scalia's strict "originalist" interpretation of the constitution, he refuses to infer that women be included in the constitution's 14th Amendment protections, as the drafters of the amendment only intended that it apply to African-Americans (despite the Court in 1971 finding that the 14th Amendment did indeed apply to women, in Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71). Because Scalia found that constitutional protections applied to corporations in Citizens United, though, many commentators have expressed outrage over this apparent anomaly. Others have written in support of Scalia's originalist position.

Scalia's originalist interpretation of the 14th Amendment to exclude women but protect corporations may be unjust, but if one looks exclusively at the intent of the drafters, it is consistent. There are indications that Congress intended the 14th Amendment to also apply to corporations. In San Mateo County v. Southern Pac. R.R., 116 U.S. 138 (1885), a member of the Joint Congressional Committee that drafted the 14th amendment argued that Congress intended the word "person" to include "legal" persons (corporations) as well as "natural" persons, and the Court accepted his argument. However, while Congress in 1868 did not mention women when drafting the 14th Amendment, they also did not mention Latinos, Jews, or Asians; under Scalia's strict originalism, then, these groups would not be afforded the constitutional right of equal protection under the law. While many have expressed anger over Scalia's comments, their dismay may be better directed at originalist interpretations of constitutional rights.