SUBHEAD: The only available solution to the Supreme Court ruling is to remove the corporations from the political arena.
By Lanny Sinkin (lanny.sinkin@gmail.com) on 22 January 2010 -
Image above: The Whitehouse is overwhelmed by a superior alien organization in 1996 movie "Independence Day". Details from International Movie Database here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/)
As a lawyer, I have watched for many years as the original case that first suggested corporations are persons became embedded into the law and grew parasitically. Of course, corporations are creations of law, fictional in their essence. The idea that they should have the same rights as persons is simply capitalist fantasy. With the latest Supreme Court ruling, that fantasy became a nightmare. We hardly have had a chance to limit corporate take over of government.
Now the Supreme Court has said we should give up trying. Mussolini defined fascism as the joining of the state to the corporations. The Supreme Court just placed its imprimatur on that marriage. There is a very simple solution. Corporations exist purely by statute. A statute can, therefore, be passed that states corporations are not persons under the law and not entitled to the constitutional rights enjoyed by persons. Such a statute would be crafted to leave in place all the rights that corporations had prior to being recognized judicially as persons, such as the right to enforce contracts and other business rights. Without such a change, we will soon live in U.S.A, Inc.
I am encouraging folks to send emails to their elected representatives calling upon them to introduce/support legislation to state that corporations are not persons and not entitled to the constitutional rights enjoyed by persons. Given the breadth of the Supreme Court ruling and its tie into the First Amendment, there is little Congress can do to regulate or otherwise limit corporations in the political arena. The only available solution is to remove them from the arena.
• Lanny Sinkin is a lawyer and former resident of Hawaii who was active in the fight against the Superferry.
By Lanny Sinkin (lanny.sinkin@gmail.com) on 22 January 2010 -
Image above: The Whitehouse is overwhelmed by a superior alien organization in 1996 movie "Independence Day". Details from International Movie Database here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/)
As a lawyer, I have watched for many years as the original case that first suggested corporations are persons became embedded into the law and grew parasitically. Of course, corporations are creations of law, fictional in their essence. The idea that they should have the same rights as persons is simply capitalist fantasy. With the latest Supreme Court ruling, that fantasy became a nightmare. We hardly have had a chance to limit corporate take over of government.
Now the Supreme Court has said we should give up trying. Mussolini defined fascism as the joining of the state to the corporations. The Supreme Court just placed its imprimatur on that marriage. There is a very simple solution. Corporations exist purely by statute. A statute can, therefore, be passed that states corporations are not persons under the law and not entitled to the constitutional rights enjoyed by persons. Such a statute would be crafted to leave in place all the rights that corporations had prior to being recognized judicially as persons, such as the right to enforce contracts and other business rights. Without such a change, we will soon live in U.S.A, Inc.
I am encouraging folks to send emails to their elected representatives calling upon them to introduce/support legislation to state that corporations are not persons and not entitled to the constitutional rights enjoyed by persons. Given the breadth of the Supreme Court ruling and its tie into the First Amendment, there is little Congress can do to regulate or otherwise limit corporations in the political arena. The only available solution is to remove them from the arena.
• Lanny Sinkin is a lawyer and former resident of Hawaii who was active in the fight against the Superferry.
No comments :
Post a Comment