3 ms·

Corporations have a lot of the same rights as people though. That was one of the big deals about the supreme court striking down campaign finance reform: the

• firebones 16y ago
  To co-opt the analogy, a more illustrative programming language might be Ruby rather than Java, to reflect the ability of the courts and Congress to monkeypatch the original implementation.
• yummyfajitas 16y ago
  Citizens United was not about corporate personhood at all, it was about freedom of speech. From the decision: "If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech." Corporate personhood is irrelevant as far as Citizens United vs FEC goes, except in minor points (Citizens United, rather than a list of members of Citizens United, was one party in court). The only "rights" corporations have is the same rights that property of their members has. If you pass a law saying my computer can't criticize the government, you've violated my freedom of speech. The court ruled that you similarly can't pass a law saying my corporation can't criticize the government - that would violate my rights, not my corporations rights.