3 ms·
Are corporations given the right to free speech?
by gosub100 1y ago
Are corporations given the right to free speech?
- alistairSH 1y agoYes. Loosely, corporations are just groups of people acting with similar goals and interests, so the free speech right flows to the company.
- polski-g 1y agoYes. Shareholders and their agents ("corporations") have rights to free speech.
- _DeadFred_ 1y agoCan a car dealer advertise a car they don't have for sale?
- snapetom 1y agoCitizens United specifically affirmed corporations' First Amendment rights.
- gosub100 1y agoI thought that was affirming money was speech?
- tracker1 1y agoKind of... restricting money/spending is restricting speech/reach.
- Gormo 1y agoNo, that ruling was almost exactly the opposite. The FEC tried to argue, based on the "electioneering communication" provisions of the McCain-Feingold act, that expression of opinions that might benefit a candidate was equivalent to a monetary donation to that candidate, so their authority to regulate campaign donations included the power to suppress the publication of certain political speech. Basically, they were arguing that "speech is money". The court ruled against that, and reaffirmed that speech in itself is always protected by the first amendment, regardless of who may benefit from it or what resources were allocated to facilitating it.
- gosub100 1y agoThank you for the explanation. I'll admit this was intellectual laziness on my part.
- Gormo 1y agoNo one is "given" a right to free speech -- rather, in the United States, the constitution recognizes a pre-existing right to free speech, and enjoins the government from infringing upon it. This applies regardless of what organizational structures people use to coordinate their affairs.