Should a legal entity (corporation) get all the rights and responsibilities of a citizen?
This stems from the free speech case regarding campaign ads.
For example, should a corporation be able to cast a vote? Would it have to be a secret? (Shareholders would have a right to know how the corporation voted, but then it wouldn't be a secret ballot.)
Should a corporation be able to marry? (I suppose under today's laws, the corporation would have to be heterosexual.)
It seems obvious to me that we don't have to treat legal entities the same as citizens and for good reason. With good cause and evidence we limit rights of citizens, so restricting the right of a corporation to campaign, when the appearance of corruption would be obvious, doesn't seem like a stretch.
What's your opinion?
2010-02-02T11:55:43Z
And I extend this to all legal entities, unions, partnerships, non-profits, etc.
?2010-02-02T11:55:57Z
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Voting citizens have nothing to fear from non-voting corporations, unless we're too lazy to do our own research. Honestly, this hysteria is so yesterday.
No,,,, Corps should not vote, or marry, but they should be able to lobby.
Let me make this clear,,,,,,,,,,Corporations are people what else could they be?
This whole thing started because the Federal Election Committee denied Citizens United Corporation the right to air their film called "Hillary the Movie" to contradict the Michael Moore films.
Now if Liberal Michael Moore can show politically motivated films but a Conservative Corporation called Citizens United cannot show their politically motivated films, then there is a clear violation of free speech, caused by the Campaign Finance Reform Act.
Corporations have been donating to politicians thru Political Action Committees since General Grant was president, the only difference is now we can actually see how is donating to whom, which is good.
Now don't let obama mis-speak to you,,,,,,,,NO Foreign Corporations can legally donate to politicians.
corporations can not legally cast a vote, because that would be giving those that direct the corporation a share in a second vote. So, those people would have 1.X votes against the average Americans simply 1.0 votes. It is unconstitutional for any one American's vote to count for more than any other American's. So, obviously, there are some rights corporations can not have that individuals can. That is not to say however that there are no rights that overlap.
There is one kind of corporation that has always had an unfair advantage in steering politics...the media. It's no small coincidence that GE received $$$Billions in stimulus money. They even had one of their pundits on the air telling people who to vote for up until the polls closed in Massachusetts. The SCOTUS just leveled the playing field.