Not so long ago if a body wanted to see what happens when hard-right Republicans hijack a state legislature, Florida and Texas were the go-to destinations. Enabled at every juncture by equally callous executive and judicial branches, the two became do-it-yourself information centers for dismantling liberalism — past, present and future.
These days the Florida and Texas legislatures are as much a threat to democracy as ever; but spurred on by their sweeping successes, other red states are plainly catching up on such weighty issues as abortion, redistricting, school curricula, amending state constitutions and rights for nonbinary persons.
Add to the list of harmful exports a renewed defense of corporate personhood. Such has been the trend here in Ohio, where cronyism and corporate trespassing are increasingly ignored or excused by attorneys general under the banner “pro-business.” Little wonder citizen complaints and legal actions involving large companies continue to decline.
But that trend was at least temporarily bucked by way of rulings against disgraced former state house speaker Larry Householder (R), and his co-conspirators at First Energy/Energy Harbor, one of the largest power companies in the nation. It’s a twisted tale, worth the telling. Even if it reads like the ethical dumpster fire it most assuredly has been.
A short as possible summary, best told in the present and future tenses:
• Householder is elected to the Ohio House in 1997, becomes speaker from 2001-2004, but resigns that post per a two-year FBI ethics investigation that will damage his standing with influential Republican colleagues;
• After a hiatus spent in lower offices, Householder returns to the statehouse in 2016, and is once again elected speaker (2019-2020). Shortly before reentering the House, he creates a nonprofit that will receive $61 million over three years from First Energy in order to: 1) help maintain Householder’s speakership; 2) Fund First Energy-friendly Republicans running for Congress in Ohio; 3) Pressure the House into supporting a $1 billion bailout for the corporation’s aging nuclear power plants and; 4) Line Householder’s pockets by the millions;
But Householder and four others are found out by the FBI, and arrested in 2020. His speakership will be revoked that same year, and Householder expelled from the House in 2021. In March he’ll be convicted of racketeering, and later sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison. He’ll claim victimhood when asked for pre-sentencing remarks, raising the ire of presiding US District Judge Timothy Black: “You know better than most people how much that money could have meant to the people of Ohio. How many lives could you have improved, but you took that away from the people of Ohio, and you handed it over to a bunch of suits with private jets.”
When taken into custody, Householder will remain characteristically flat.
Meanwhile Akron-based First Energy will also be held to account. The energy behemoth will confess conspiracy to defraud taxpayers, and pay $230 million to avoid federal prosecution. Half will be designated for the federal government, with the rest going to Ohio’s regulated utility customers. The settlement will not protect First Energy from further legal action, including that against specific corporate individuals.
As advertised, it’s been a twisted tale.
As we’ve seen over and again, corporate personhood (originll.y conferred by the Supreme Court in the Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific case in 1886, and reinforced in the Citizens’ United case in 2010, which held corporations have a First Amendment right to get involved in politics) is among the most dehumanizing Supreme Court rulings handed down this century: The very notion of companies as people is as repulsive today as when the decision was announced 13 years ago.
In a better world, the consequences meted out to Householder and First Energy would be a clear caution given the rebirth of corporate personhood. If so, that would be another tale worth the telling.
Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2023
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