Court Declares Corporations Are People, Some Human Beings Are Not

[marmar]

from Reclaim Democracy!:



Court Declares Corporations Are People, Some Human Beings Are Not

Print-friendly Page By Jeffrey Kaplan
Published February 8, 2008



In evaluating allegations that U.S. military forces deprived four British men of human rights during two years they were held captive in Guantanamo Bay prison, a U.S. appeals court found an innovative way to let the Bush administration off the hook. Two of three judges ruled the men -- because they are not U.S. citizens and, technically, were not imprisoned in the U.S. -- were not legally "persons" and, therefore, had no rights to violate.

While those judges were defying common sense and decency by denying legal personhood to living human beings, an appeals court in Boston has been reviewing an April 2007 decision by Federal Judge Paul Barbadoro that engaged in a different form of judicial activism -- granting human rights to corporations.

Barbadoro struck down a New Hampshire law that prevented pharmaceutical corporations from learning exactly what drugs doctors prescribe and how much they prescribe. The law aims to protect doctors and, indirectly, their patients, from drug companies pressuring doctors to choose their products.

The judge's grounds? He claims corporations, as legal persons, have "free speech rights" that would be infringed by such a measure.

The real issue in these cases (Maine recently passed a similar law) isn't free speech at all; it's manipulation and control. The drug salespeople only will decide what to say after poking into the doctors' prescription records. Under the guise of protecting speech, Judge Barbadoro denied both legitimate privacy rights of doctors and key protections to ensure patients are prescribed drugs based on their medical situation, not pressure ensure patients are prescribed drugs based on their medical situation, not pressure applied to their physician. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/guantanamo_human_persons.php

[Demeter]

1. Put It on the Fix-It List

Just wait til we get to declare Bushbots non-persons!

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I will continue to consider them persons

'Prisoners' is my personal choice, but still persons nonetheless.

[porphyrian]

2. This only further solidifies the set precedent of corporate personhood by law. -n/t

[thunder rising]

3. Ain't that America. Home of the free corporation. All that's needed now is corp voting rights

You know, just bundle all our employees (their loyal to the corp anyway, you know) and we'll make the decisions for them.

[mediaman007]

5. I'm guessing that the person vs. corporation question won't be

a topic for any of the debates.

Move along now, nothing to see here.

[Orrex]

6. If corporations are people, then draft them

Put them into obligatory military service for the country from which they've profited so hugely.

[Demeter]

8. And Tax Them!

[Orrex]

9. Oh, now you're just talking crazy!

Corporations should never be required to pay tax, because of all the wonderful things that they do for society-at-large.


Hmm...

Now I can't decide whether to go with :sarcasm: or :puke:

[RC]

10. Tax them? Can't happen.

As Persons, they make way too much money to be taxed at any reasonable level.

Orrex: I wonder what the rational will be not to draft them into any of our wars. Won't happen because suddenly they won't be People, but a good idea anyway.

[Demeter]

14. Blackwater Drafted?

How would they pay the executives their salaries, bonuses, perks, and where would the political bribe money come from?

Can't do that on a soldier's pay.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. Thank you. K&R!

[windoe]

11. Corporations are just a front

for the elite family heist of all the private wealth of this country. They will call it a recession, depression, 'hard times' and call on citizens to bear the burdens of it, but nothing will stop the flow of money and property from private hands to elite ownership, unless we find a way to stop them.
I am presently reading Thom Hartman's. We The People- A Call to Take Back America. Oh Gods are we royally screwed.
It will be great to have a Democrat in the White House, at least less damage will be done to this country than *, but I am afraid the robbery will go on nomatter what behind the scenes, unless more people wake up. Havent finished the book yet, it is blowing my little mind.

[dansolo]

12. Free speech?

Irregardless of what your opinion is about the "personhood" of corporations, they have no right to compel any information from doctors. Doctors are prohibited from revealing any medical records to any "person", so even if you grant "personhood" to a corporation, they still are not entitled to that information. Unless this judge is suggesting that HIPAA is unconstitutional?

[Demeter]

15. State of Mich Compells Doctors To Report to Child and Adult Protective Services

so the precedent is already there.

[malaise]

13. The logic of this ruling is that only

Americans are human. So WTF am I? :shrug:

[RuleOfNah]

16. Obviously you are too smart to be an American!

Has my country really become land of the dumb and home of the dumber? How can these Republicans, supposedly professionally trained, try to pass off legal idiocy as grave and important lawyerly work without dying from the shame? Why do these laughing stocks remain as artificially inflated as the DOW?