How can a Corporation be a person?

[samsingh]

what a joke.

A corporation is a shell with many people e.g. voters. Corporations do not vote.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Corrupt Supreme Court Justices in 1886 - "a must read for DU"

Everyone really needs to read this perspective onhttp://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/santaclara.html">Corporate Personhood

In 1886 the supreme court justices were Samuel F. Miller, Stephen J. Field, Joseph P. Bradley, John M. Harlan, Stanley Matthews, William B. Woods, Samuel Blatchford, Horace Gray, and chief justice Morrison. R. Waite. Never heard of a one of them? These men subjected African Americans to a century of Jim Crow discrimination; they made corporations into a vehicle for the wealthy elite to control the economy and the government; they vastly increased the power of the Supreme Court itself over elected government officials. How quaint they are forgotten names. In all fairness, Justice Harlan dissented from the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision <163 U.S. 537 (1896)>, which, as he said, effectively denied the protection of the 14th Amendment to the very group of people (former slaves and their descendants) for whom it was designed.

http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/santaclara.html

[BOSSHOG]

2. And 41% be a controlling majority

Conservative democratic nirvana.

[The_Commonist]

3. Here's how...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad

[treestar]

4. It's only a legal fiction

so they can make contracts, sue and be sued, etc.

If everything was between individuals and partnerships, we'd be limited to a 19th century level for the economy.

If the person you bought a car from is GM and the car is a lemon, you can sue GM.

If you could only buy from say local car dealer Bob Jones, and he sold you a lemon, he could disappear, be judgment proof easily. You'd tend to deal only with people you could trust. Our economy would be like that of a small third world country.

[msongs]

5. because 5 employees of the RNC on the court say so nt

[Xipe Totec]

6. They are plutocratic sock puppets n/t

[qazplm]

7. that wasnt the ruling

the ruling was that speech was not tied to people in the 1st Amendment. I'm not saying it was a great ruling, I'm just saying the SC did not specifically rule that corps were people and thus deserving of free speech rights.

[Xipe Totec]

9. Forget it, he's rolling n/t

[DJ13]

8. The real ripoff is that individual executives already had the right to donate to campaigns

They could donate to politicians that represented their interests, which any rational person would expect was the interests of the corporation they work for.

[gristy]

10. It's a legal definition. Not literal.

[kudzu22]

11. A corp is not a person, but it does have rights & responsibilities

And you don't have to be a person to have free speech. Speech itself is what is free, not the speakers. I think it would be worse if the court ruled that corps have no rights. Can you imagine someday if the pukes get back into office (and they always do), and abuse that concept? SEIU and ACORN aren't people, so we can search their offices without warrants. Aetna isn't a person so they can't be sued for damages?

Though I don't like the effect the decision is going to have, it is the right decision in terms of constitutional rights.

[donheld]

12. If they can they are without doubt

100% sociopathic.

[CrispyQ]

13. We need to distinguish between natural persons & artificial persons.

When AI happens, we'll wish we did that! :evilgrin:

[ixion]

14. It can't, and it isn't.

and, really, that should be the end of the discussion, were it not for a group of corrupt swine.

[janedum]

15. Can Obama override a court decision?

[qazplm]

16. no

separation of powers.

Congress/the States can by amending the Constitution, but as you can guess that takes A LOT.