Robert Reich: Supreme Court says corps are people, so

[tabatha]

Robert Reich ? @RBReich Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Supreme Court says corps are people, so will Wal-Mart get 10 yrs in prison for illegal bribes, and News Corp 25 yrs for illegal hacking?

[Marr]

1. Good question. Unfortunately, it's facetious.

Corporations are only people when that's convenient for big investors.

[lector]

5. View profile Corporations are only people when that's convenient for big investors.

And cheap politicians.

[ashling]

11. Why shouldn't these corporate "persons" be subject to the penalties of criminal

law as real persons? And I assure you that question was not facetious.

[Recursion]

12. That's literally the reason corporations are people: civil and criminal liability

Joint stock corporations have been since their invention in the 16th century "fictional people" for the express purpose of being able to drag them into court. It's a trade off: the company itself becomes liable under law (legal personhood is the only way that can happen) but the liability of the investors are limited to their investments. My point is Citizens United was far from the first time that corporations were considered "people"; that's been the theory behind corporations all along. The novel doctrine in CU was that the rights of these fictional people were considered more important than the government's obligation to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption, which was the governing doctrine since at least Buckley v. Valeo.

[Trillo]

2. A good point.

Whenever a corporation is caught breaking laws, individual humans seem the ones most frequently reported prosecuted.

[DCKit]

3. When there's a prosecution, or any action at all. nt

[spanone]

4. silly, corporations are people without any personal responsibility for anything...

seee

[Initech]

6. Why aren't we going after BP for what they did to the Gulf? They should get death.

[polichick]

16. Yep - and how sad that not even Dem "leaders" learned anything from that horrible disaster.

[cstanleytech]

7. If you are refering to mexico and the UK isssues its out of the courts jurisdiction isnt it?

But anyway my question regarding it is, if the scotus really believes in the ruling that corporations are people then shouldnt they throw out the laws Gov Walker has signed against the unions? Since using the logic of the scotus they must be people to with free speech and all the other laws and protections everyone else has in this country.

[Sherman A1]

8. I believe that they

also violated US laws against foreign bribery with the payments made in Mexico, so as a US Corporation they may be accountable, depending upon the investigation if there is any.

[jeff47]

14. Paying bribes in a foreign country is illegal in the US

US law makes it illegal for US corporations to pay bribes outside the US to foreign governments.

As for the UK, there's mounting evidence that Murdoch's empire hacked phones in the US as well as the UK.

shouldnt they throw out the laws Gov Walker has signed against the unions? Since using the logic of the scotus they must be people to with free speech and all the other laws and protections everyone else has in this country.

Silly liberal! The Constitution is whatever Scalia says it is.

[MurrayDelph]

9. I've been saying that since Citizen's United

If a corporation is person, arrest it.

Place a cease-and-desist order, with the warning that violating it is tantamount to admitting to being an accessory after the fact.

I have mentioned to my Senator, who looked at it like "well, that's interesting"

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

[KurtNYC]

13. It seems they are only "people" in matters of election funding

otherwise a merger would be a 'marriage'

and an IPO would be prostitution.

[AnneD]

15. I'll believe that...

when I see one on death row in Texas.