When Did Companies Become People? Excavating the Legal Evolution (2014)
Well corporations aren&#x27;t people, but they are made of people.<p>The new York times is some sort of corporation, so does it not get free speech? How about ycombinator? How about NPR?<p>I think NPR&#x27;s coverage was lacking in subtlety. They barely mention what the case was actually <i>about</i>, which was whether the government had the right to restrict the release of a documentary.<p>It is difficult for me to consider something as profoundly anti-1A as the government stepping in and saying &#x27;No, you cannot publish that documentary&#x27;.<p>I know there is another side to this. And I hate to be so harsh, but I think the media has done a very poor job of explaining the implications of the issue.<p>Let&#x27;s consider for a moment what it would mean for corporations to <i>not</i> have free speech.<p>First, it would mean that we would need some sort of government department to determine what speech is permitted and which isn&#x27;t. This might initially seem obvious (political vs non-political), but how could one draw that distinction? Are Michael Moore movies &#x27;political&#x27;? How about a movie with strong environmentalist or anti-war themes? It starts to get hazy very quickly. So we will need some legal guidelines specifying what is allowed and what is not, as well as a department to watch and read publications to ensure they follow the guidelines.<p>Then, we will need to determine which corporations are going to be regulated, and it what ways. It certainly seems evil for an Exxon or Microsoft to start publishing stances that might benefit themselves. So does that mean that we need to regulate the news that comes out of MSNBC (owned by Comcast) or the movies made by Sony pictures? It starts to seem very dystopian.<p>And what about books? So I can self-publish a book, since that&#x27;s just me. But if I decide to use a publisher, is the content of my book now regulated? That seems like an arbitrary distinction. If I publish a zine, and it gets popular, maybe I want to hire some employees. Does this mean I cannot incorporate to make my taxes simpler and to separate my personal liabilities from my business liabilities? That seems like an arbitrary distinction based on tax law, and has little bearing on the political function of my zine.<p>Etc. etc. Hopefully this helpa you understand why this isn&#x27;t such a straightforward issue.