Constitutionalizing Class Inequality: Due Process in State Farm

The Supreme Court's decision in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell presents a constitutional precedent limiting punitive damage awards against corporations. McCluskey argues that State Farm constitutionalizes protection for wealthy business interests by disguising substantive class protections as neutral procedural rules. The essay explores how due process doctrine, traditionally understood as affording no substantive protection for economic inequality, has shifted to privileging corporate interests. McCluskey analyzes State Farm's implications for constitutional doctrine on class, arguing that the Court employs a slippery boundary between substance and process to protect corporations from punitive damages while maintaining formal neutrality. The article contends that class inequality can be constitutionalized through two mechanisms: by casting substantive protections as procedural technicalities or by transforming political opposition to capital interests into arbitrary substantive privilege. McCluskey demonstrates how State Farm advances the broader problematic trend of extending constitutional status to corporations, systematically disadvantaging individuals and organized labor.

Topics: Constitutional Law · Civil Rights

Keywords: State Farm · punitive damages · due process · class inequality · corporate power · economic rights · constitutional doctrine