Madison, Corporations, and the National Security State

In Citizens United, Justice Anthony Kennedy musters James Madison in support of a decision striking down congressional efforts to limit corporate electioneering. Whatever the merits of the opinion itself, Kennedy confused his Founding Fathers. In a Liberty and Power lecture (PDF) delivered at the University of Alabama Law School on Thursday, I take a look at Madison’s attitude towards corporations and the potentially corrupting influence they might have on the political process, relying on a significant essay by Madison that Harper’s Magazine uncovered and published in March 1914.