In 2003, the Saint Thomas Quarry Corporation bought 450 acres of orchard land in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, with the intention of tearing down the trees and sinking a limestone quarry into the ground within 1000 feet of the Saint Thomas Eelementary School. Along with the quarry, an asphalt plant and cement factory would be erected, but the three Directors of the corporation didn't want the community to get wind of the project before the permitting process was complete. So they created a new corporation and transferred title for the land to the Saint Thomas Development Corporation.

The citizens of Saint Thomas Township figured out what was happening and formed a group: Friends and Residents of Saint Thomas Township, or "FROST." They wanted to keep the quarry out, because they feared it would damage their property, threaten their well water supply, and destroy the quality of life for the citizens living nearby. Having already experienced the condescending machinations of the pro-corporate Regulatory System in other community fights against corporate assaults, the members of FROST determined not to attempt to stop the permitting process, but rather to challenge the claimed rights of the three men hiding behind the corporation, who proposed to wield the Constitution against the citizens of Saint Thomas.

FROST decided to work within the system of democracy that ensured them a voice in their commuunity. Against all odds, and with only a month to go before election day in 2004, FROST ran a write-in campaign for a Township Supervisor candidate who promised to oppose the quarry. And, against all odds, their candidate won.

The FROST story really begins here, on election day, when the citizens of Saint Thomas Township had the temerity to elect a candidate to represent them on an unambiguous platform of opposition to the quarry being dug in the community. On his first day on the job, the newly elected Township Supervisor was advised that the Township had received a letter from the quarry corporation threatening to sue the Township if he discussed, voted, or deliberated on any issue concerning the proposed quarry. The corporation's lawyer wrote that the new Supervisor's campaign statements in opposition to the quarry were proof of a bias, and that for him to make governing decisions based on that bias would be a discriminatory violation of the corporation's Constitutional rights.

The citizens of Saint Thomas saw things differently. They believed that the letter, in essence, was an attempt to nullify the local election with its threat to impoverish the municipality with costly legal actions if the new Supervisor exercised his representative authority. And they believed that the state, which had issued the corporate charter to the Saint Thomas Development Corporation, had a Constitutional duty to intervene and guarantee the municipality an unencumbered republican form of government, with elected representatives chosen by the People on the basis of stated positions on the issues of concern to the community.

The US District Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the corporation, arguing that the corporation indeed has Constitutional rights and that the community has no authority to make governing decisions that conflict with the interests of the liability-free Directors of the corporation. In addition, the Courts ruled that the community had not been harmed by the corporation's extorted recusal of the newly elected Supervisor.

The last chapter of this story has not yet been written.

Community Challenges Corporate Claims to Constitutional Rights -- Virginia Rasmussen and Richard Grossman

Amended Complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

FROST's Reply to the Commonwealth Defendants' Motion to Dismiss

FROST's Reply to the Corporate Defendants' Motion to Dismiss

Brief in Opposition to Motion for Sanctions

U.S. District Court Ruling on FROST Suit --Judge Yvette J. Kane presiding

Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Plaintiff's Brief

Third Circuit Court of Appeals Decision

PA Court of Common Pleas, Franklin County -- ruling in favor of Township Supervisor Frank Stern and against recusal from governing, as demanded by quarry corporation.