A Corporation is not a person. It is not alive.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Discuss.

:P

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. It is a group of living individual people with a single goal. Like a union or party.

Aw shit.

:hide:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. No, it's not.

It's a legal entity that exists only on paper.

:P

[RB TexLa]

6. So is a university, a state, a country.

I guess none of those things "have any damn rights" either.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Ah, they may well have rights.

Just not the right to vote.

[RB TexLa]

17. How? They don't breath. They exist on paper. In case you didn't know

corporations can't vote either. They have not been made into "persons." I honestly don't know which I laugh at more the idiots screaming about "corporate personhood," or the idiots screaming about "government death panels."

[mix]

29. "Corporate personhood" is a legal reality...death panels are fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood

[RB TexLa]

31. No corporation has ever been named a person. Just as much of a fantasy.

[mix]

32. The case law speaks for itself.

Your position is not tenable. This travesty, applying the 14th amendment to corporations, has existed in American jurisprudence since the late 19th century.

An 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394, 6 S. Ct. 1132, 30 L. Ed. 118, is often cited for the principle that the term person as used in the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to corporations as well as to natural persons.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Santa+Clara+County+v.+Southern+Pacific+Railroad+Company

(text of court's ruling)
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html

[RB TexLa]

41. So you feel corporations and other entities should be subject to laws but have no right of equal

protection under those laws? Are you serious? You think the IRS should be able to tell Joe Blow Plumbing, INC that they owe $200,000 more in taxes and Joe Blow Plumbing, INC should have no recourse to challenge that?

Unbelievable

[mix]

44. There should be a legal distinction between corporations and people.

Otherwise, you get rulings like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which apply rights intended for people to corporations. Yes, equal protection is important for corporations, but the application of the 14th amendment to corporate law has set a horrible precedent and allowed corporations to claim more and more legal and constitutional grounds at the expense of those for whom the law was originally written, i.e individual citizens.

But this really is not the issue we are debating, despite your diversion.

Your claim that corporations have never been legally defined as persons is still dead wrong.

[RB TexLa]

45. Name one corporation that has been named a human being, I really want to fucking hear this

Start naming them.

[mix]

46. Read the case law...starting with Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad.

The issue is not defining corporations as "human beings," but giving them the same rights as individual citizens, i.e. personhood.

[RB TexLa]

47. I have read the case law. I do hope you have a pleasant evening.

[mix]

48. No, you haven't. nt

[RB TexLa]

49. Yes, I have. I do not lie. Your calling me a liar doesn't make it true.

[upi402]

Union PAC = a single mom donating $20 and

a worker chipping in $52, to be lumped with others so it will get heard, not utterly ignored. To me, comparing union PACs with corporate influence is comparing apple and oranges.

But the media never points that out.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. And shareholders buy stock.

:shrug:

[RB TexLa]

18. Only the wealthy.

which of course means anyone who has 1 cent more in net assets then the particular poster who posts it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Nonsense.

Millions of middle class people have 401ks.

And even the poor can buy some shares, if they're so interested.

[RB TexLa]

21. As I said. "which of course means anyone who has 1 cent more in net assets then the particular post"

I guess no reason to read that.

[Johonny]

35. do corporations, unions or partys have a single goal?

Not the ones I belong too.

[cali]

2. listen to pat leahy's speech on the Senate floor today.

he talks about corporate personhood.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Is there a Youtube link?

[kpominville]

Here is the youtube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsT_9nTcuvw

[Gregorian]

26. Thank you!

I'm so glad to see this. I predict the decision will be effectively neutered somehow. People with common sense won't let it stand.

In my opinion, this gives some people more access to the election process than others.

[upi402]

5. Can't get cancer so shouldn't influence HCR debate as a person

ad infinitum


That insanity has brought us to this. Good night America I love you.:patriot:

[kimmerspixelated]

7. Bingo for Cal. Peg!!!

You nailed it, honey!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I thank you!

*bows*

[Lex]

10. It is created by law soley.

It shouldn't be afforded all the rights that we the PEOPLE have under the Constitution.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. Absolutely.

This is how I see it.

[Echo In Light]

13. To subvert the transparency of democracy, to limit "democratic interference."

[MichiganVote]

11. Can we have an abortion? Please?

[mike_c]

15. do you know about movetoamend.org?

It's David Cobb's organization dedicated to repealing corporate personhood through constitutional amendment. http://www.movetoamend.org/

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. And free speech does not only apply to "live beings/people".

the first ammendment does not specify that it's protected rights are established only for persons.
What's your point?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. It was just a thought I had.

And I wanted to see what all of you had to say about it.

That's all.

[mix]

28. What other entities are included then?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Speech is a human act.

[Blue Owl]

20. Even if a Supreme Court judge tells you so.

Trust your own brain on this one.

[Bucky]

23. Double plus bad, citizen. Report to the reeducation joycamp.

Your thoughtcrime is a threat. I bellyfeel you have malserved the compassionate lords of Oceania.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

24. My dear Bucky!

:scared:




















:rofl:

[RedCloud]

25. Even Commander Data could not rise to this level...

And he was much wiser than the SC-5!

[Gregorian]

27. In my opinion, this gives some people more access to the election process than others.

It corporations are people, then it gives those people more election power than other people.

Corporations are obviously not people. People are flesh and blood. But attorneys are good at twisting things. I suppose you could say justice is blind. They still think an elephant is a wall.

[Cetacea]

30. K&R

[gristy]

33. Corporate Personhood is a legal term. Not a literal term.

It doesn't need to be alive.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. Well, damn!

[mix]

37. Technically true, yet constitutionally dubious. nt

[Major Hogwash]

36. Very well said, CaliforniaPeggy.

Not only can corporations be bought and sold, even to shareholders overseas, they can change names, especially after they are indicted.
Like when Blackwater became Xe.

[Odin2005]

38. So a sapient AI wouldn't be a person?

BIOCENTIST!!! :P

[varelse]

39. Money talks

Discuss :D

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. THAT'S for sure!

And I guess it did in this case, huh?

:rofl:

[varelse]

42. Indeed it has

moved itself neatly under the umbrella of free speech protection provided by our Constitution's First Amendment. I wonder what the authors would have to say about that?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

43. I think they would be aghast.

[democratus]

50. It's alive

sucking our blood every minute of the day and shoves it's face in our every moment.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

51. Welcome to DU!

And I hope you're wrong about this! But I'm afraid you may be right...

:scared:

:hi:

[bigwillq]

52. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi: