harters as obligations that state legislatures could not impair. In 1837, Chief Justice Taney determined that, where a corporate charter contained no express provision against the granting of a competitive franchise, the granting of a charter to a competitor was not an impairment of the contract expressed in the original charter.
The passage of various state laws based upon these two Supreme Court rulings, and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment resulted in a significant expansion of use of the corporate form of business organization. The Fourteenth Amendment extended the protection of due process, and equality in protection, privileges, and immunity to all persons. The key word in the context of corporate activity was person. The Supreme Court has not recognized corporations as citizens in the context of the Fourteenth Amendment; however, corporations have been recognized as persons. Thus, while some restrictions apply to corporations that do not apply to individual citizens, corporations do enjoy
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