Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

Source: Hacker News

Background

Corporations, partnerships, trusts, limited liability companies, and other “artificial entities” have the right to vote in Delaware elections under certain circumstances, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The case involved a charter that permits voting in local elections by the entities that own most of the property in the Town of Fenwick Island, one of several municipalities in the state with similar provisions.

Court Ruling

Judge Craig A. Karsnitz dismissed the ACLU’s challenge in Delaware’s Superior Court, citing “the principle of one person/entity/one vote.”

“Visions of faceless large corporations or even HAL controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction,” but “trusts, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations are expressly recognized as ‘persons’ in the Delaware Code,” the judge said.

Karsnitz, writing in a 19‑page opinion, rejected an array of constitutional arguments advanced by the ACLU, including the claim that entity voting dilutes the political power of living people. The lawsuit did not allege discrimination based on race or political partisanship, nor did it show that entity property owners vote as a bloc to defeat the preferred candidates of natural persons, or that Fenwick’s charter was intended to fence out natural persons.

The town is represented by Brockstedt Mandalas Federico LLC. The ACLU is represented by its own attorneys.

Legal Context

The dispute reflects an unusual flashpoint in the decades‑long fight over the free‑speech rights of corporations and the flow of “dark money” into American elections. The U.S. Supreme Court held in 2010’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that political spending counts as constitutionally protected speech.

Since that ruling effectively ended corporate campaign‑finance regulation, the prospect of outright voting by business entities has been a source of both criticism and satire.

Delaware, home to more corporations than people, relies heavily on the billions of dollars in annual fees it collects from the more than 2 million business entities chartered there. The state’s constitutional provisions expressly enshrine corporate personhood, reflecting this fiscal dependence.

Case Details

• Case name: Am. Civ. Lib. Union of Del. v. Town of Fenwick Island
• Court: Delaware Superior Court
• Docket: No. S25C‑12‑003
• Decision date: May 26, 2026
• Reference: aboutblaw.com/blQg