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Common nonsense and entirely false. Corporations are treated like people for certain elements of the legal process (like the question of civil rights) because
by fennecfoxen 6y ago
Common nonsense and entirely false.
Corporations are treated like people for certain elements of the legal process (like the question of civil rights) because they are owned and operated by people, as a way for those people to do things together as a group (like exercising civil rights).
This line is a strong indicator that you're with or have been influenced by the "I hate Citizens United" people, who never seem to bother to remember that Citizens United itself was incorporated as a nonprofit, making a movie about Hillary Clinton with (non-tax-deductible) donations, as an exercise in those peoples' first amendment rights — one which the FEC sought to stop.
Anyway, Pinkerton's corporation has been replaced by a successor legal entity wholly owned by Securitas AB.
- Semaphor 6y agodo you have any (not too legal\dry) background reading on this? I'm not in the USA, so I might have let my biases lead me in what to believe.
- pydry 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC A judge ruled that a corporation was a person for the purposes of granting first amendment rights to run advertisements endorsing or attacking political candidates. The Koch Brothers could then spend an unlimited amount of money attacking any candidates who proposed environmental regulations, for instance. It essentially shifted the power in America towards whomever had the bigger megaphone and more campaign financing.
- Semaphor 6y agoI meant the other view, the one the person I replied to was hinting at. The one that doesn't make it seen like a horrible thing for society.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoI don't have a ton of "legal" analysis but if you'd like partisan analysis of Citizens United I recommend the Libertarians — https://reason.com/tag/citizens-united/ https://reason.com/tag/citizens-united/ (you will of course notice the usual partisan ramblings you'd expect from an overtly Libertarian outlet, but, well, they're the ones with interest and motivation to cover it). But the amazing thing is that you can't say "look at this small nonprofit the FEC was trying to shut up" or even a talk that acknowledges the conflicts between what seems fair and enumerated rights. No, no, instead we must bring nonsense memes with negative information: "corporations and people are the same and Koch money has ended our democracy forever".