I am tired of the bellyachers about the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United. They obviously have not read the decision.
The rationale of the ruling is that the government doesn’t control who may speak on political issues. This was the founding principle for the First Amendment. Apparently, the bellyachers disagree.
As lawyers know, corporations are not “human beings.” They are, however, “fictitious persons,” and have constitutional rights. That has been the law for decades. The court applied political speech protection to corporations in 1936, so this is not new. And, the overwhelming majority of corporations in America are small businesses, which have a stake in who gets elected, as Obamacare has clearly demonstrated.
A corporation can be prosecuted for a crime. Would the bellyachers deny it the presumption of innocence, or other due process guarantees? In a civil lawsuit, would they deny it the constitutional right to a jury trial? I wonder how The Columbian would feel about that?
