Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad
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Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate entities and equal protection.
The decision concerned three separate cases:
- Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company
- California v. Central Pacific Railroad Ccompany
- California v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company
At the lower court levels the question of whether corporations were persons had been argued, and these arguments were submitted in writing to the Court. However, before oral argument took place, Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite announced: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does."
