Business vs. Business...Corporate Personhood

Are corporations really just groups of citizens and therefor worthy of free speech rights, as the supreme court has decided?

WHO CARES! It is NOT relevant!

Here is an analogy: The game is football and the long-bomb forward pass. There is a very logical way to defend against any forward pass. Simply tackle the receiver before he catches the ball! Why not? There is a rule against it because without that rule the game will not work! It’s cheating. Giving corporations the right to use their huge financial resources to express their opinions is giving each of them a 1000 Watt bull-horn and all the rest of us a muzzle! It does not matter if they SHOULD have free speech rights or not. There must be a rule against it because it’s cheating! This why I believe there must be a constitutional amendment that puts a halt to corporations using their money to promote their antisocial thinking.

Al K.

Sharon, I totally agree. I was taught in law school to respect judges, and working with Bar Associations we labored long and hard to keep the profession of law respected, against some pretty serious barriers too.

But why bother, when out top court re-writes the Constitution on a whim? It was bad enough in the Bush v. Gore stay, when they re-wrote the law of the stay; and then in the decision itself 3 days later, when they invented an entirely new protected class - IIRC it was people who had had their votes counted (as opposed to people who had not). Gaaah!

Great program Thom, but if there is a silver lining to the decision, it highlights how corrupt our corporatist-controlled government has become, and the outrage will surely galvanize more citizens into taking action. But dancing around the root of the problem will not solve the central issue - getting honest citizens elected to office to represent us, and set things right again - It will take massive efforts to collect numerous small contributions & inform the citizenry to start launching honest citizen representation, exclude big donors from being part of the 'carrot', putting people-power ahead of corporate control. When we get a critical mass of real people into office, introducing amendments to the constitution guaranteeing our rights to fair elections and fair contests for office can take place.
Secondly, any politician running for office needs to be held up to high standards of scrutiny for their list of donors, and taking large contributions from moneyed interests should be highlighted, and shame in the media put on those who take this "bribe" money. Honest candidates in like kind need to be praised and lauded for their higher ethical standards.
Thirdly, public marches to highlight the problem and push for an amendment would tip public opinion, and gain an even greater groundswell of support.
Once we get enough true representation in Congress and other Congress members see that going against the issue will cost them dearly in the next election cycle, we can begin the process of including the rights of Fair Elections and Fair Contests for Office in the U.S. Constitution. Essential as the right to vote, the right to fair contests for office is a right by which all other rights are protected. Additionally, the public broadcast spectrum is a natural commons for all humans, and if we are to give up the use of that commons to private concerns, in return all broadcasters owe the citizenry equal access to the airwaves for 5% of the time during an election year, without charge, when the majority of citizens are watching or listening, and on an equal basis to all qualifying candidates for office. For the right to be heard on an equal basis, regardless of money, is essential to safeguard the Right to Fair Elections and Fair Contests for Office. And no other paid political promotional ads allowed - columnists can write what they want, pundits can discuss all they want, news programs can argue the points, but to use cash to buy more promotional time is essentially allowing the moneyed few to have greater influence in matters of public opinion regarding office seekers than the general citizenry, and that's unacceptable in a Republic with Democratic institutions.
The Right to Vote, the Right to Fair Elections, and the Right to Fair Contests for Office must come before paid political speech and press, for without the former, our general rights as citizens will not be protected in any sense, save for a few quiet whispers in a tavern, or some casual talk on the street.