A business privacy case that comes before the U.S. Supreme Court today may rekindle a debate among the justices over whether corporations are like people, even to the point of suffering embarrassment.
The case, set to be argued in Washington, pits the Obama administration against AT&T Inc. over the release of documents stemming from a government investigation of the company. The question is whether corporations can invoke a Freedom of Information Act provision that protects against invasions of “personal privacy.”
As with a corporate campaign spending case the court resolved a year ago, the answer may reflect the justices’ differing views about the nature of corporations. In siding with AT&T, a lower court said companies can be embarrassed and stigmatized just like human beings — a contention the Obama administration scoffed at.
Next, corporations will want the right to bear arms.
Found by Cinàedh.
“Next, corporations will want the right to bear arms
They already do. Ever heard of Blackwater (now known as Xe Services LLC.)
Read NFA34, corporations already have rights to machine guns which exceed those of individuals.
suffering embarrassment
Hahahahaha…
They’ve got lawyers for that and lawyers are shameless, humorless prostitutes who share a bed with accountants.
The CEOs, CFOs CTOs and board members hide their shame all the way to the bank.
WELL,
lets ask a few questions..
HOW much privacy does the individual get?
The idea of Privacy means you have something to HIDE..?
IF a police person STOPS you on the road…YOU have no property rights to your car. They can INSPECT IT AND DO ANYTHING THEY WANT.. IF you contest it, they just say “I smell MJ”, lets get the dogs out here.. LETS TEAR IT ALL APART and do an inspection.
SAME with your home.
ALL they have to do, is SUSPECT a criminal act is being done. If your dog BARKS at them, they have the RIGHT to kill it. Even if they find NOTHING.
They should also assign a funeral date. If they want to be personified then they should die when they reach 75 years old.
They should just change the law. The whole problem is that other companies are using the Freedom of Information Act to get a hold of AT&T’s corporate proprietary information. FOI Act was clearly not intended for this purpose.
When citizens ask for protection from corporations its an assault on liberty, a government overreach, and puppy killing communism.
When corporations do it its business as usual.
giving human rights to corporations is enslaving mankind
whats good for the goose… If corporations have all the rights of people, I’d kind of like to have all the rights of a corporation. Irish tax haven here i come.
Can anyone tell me how many corporations are buried at Arlington National Cemetary?
Anyone?
“Next, corporations will want the right to bear arms.” /// Nice line.
Corps are convicted of crimes that warrant the death penalty==revoke their charters and bust them up. Analogies always fail at some point.
Corps are born in law by their charters and as such “Delaware” or “Nevada” could pass laws limiting this “personhood” as desired. No one is doing that though because the corp mothering committee wants their blessed offspring to have all the possible advantages.
money = speech
corp = person
person = spend money
therefore corps can spend money.
Yes a tight little logical progression based on two faulty premises. Just Look!
How can anyone claim to be a “constitutional originalist” while also believing that corporations have constitutional rights?
(There is no mention of corporations in the constitution, in case you haven’t checked.)
Yet, Justice Roberts and the other conservatives claim to hold both positions. What a frauds.
Horrible. Corporations have NO RIGHTS other than to make money by NOT harming people but by providing services. Those services should be tightly regulated.
That we’ve gotten to this position is an extreme injustice.
Since I have no right to privacy from corporations and government (remember how the laws were retroactively changed so TelCos could spy on us?) and NO court order is needed, then it stands to reason that corporations have no right to privacy from me either.
Sorry, this just shows how we live in a fascist society now. Look up the definition of fascist.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this were settled with some concession to AT&T. Money talks and human rights walk.
gmknobl said in #14 “Sorry, this just shows how we live in a fascist society now.”
Benito Mussolini should be so proud.
He has in fact won the Second World War.
Lets all just save ourselves a lot of time, get the Constitutional amendment started through the mill, that says ‘wherever the word Person or People appears in the Constitution of the United States of America, substitute the word Corporation’. This death by 1000 cuts of the 1776-vintage United States is wearying.
Is not AT&T a PUBLIC company?
This tends to prove the allegation that the US lower courts are being bought and sold by big corporations. Who basically finance the election campaigns of judges, now, more so than they have Congressional representatives. More bang for their buck, by subverting the legal system. And apparently, these courts don’t have to (or just don’t) recuse themselves of judging these cases, that they’re politically involved with.
Here we see the legal trickery, which is the favorite of today’s most elite legal minds. If you can’t change the laws, change the meaning of them. And so corporations get redefined as being like humans, and being embarrassed, and shamed. And probably suffering mental anguish, and being driven to become alcoholics, taking illegal drugs, miss-treating their kids, and ending up in the Betty Ford center. Well that’s just plain stupid! But I’ll guarantee you that some morons will buy it. Hook, line and sinker. Just the sort the courts will want as jurors.
Ya know, just as the US has a department of Standards and Measures. It ought to have a department that keeps the legal language, that all our laws and rights are based on, from being manipulated by these clever devils, in industry and politics. Or else we’re in danger of loosing everything the US fore fathers struggled to create. But no, let’s just roll over and give in to situational ethics and sophistry.