The supreme Court is the next big item after Trump faces the inevitable. Many of them fucking consider corporations legally the same as a person except for when it comes to any type of punishment or negative consequence.
The corporate personhood doctrine is 200 years old. It’s nothing new. It’s disgusting, it’s dysfunctional, but it’s as American as it gets.
The reason why corporate persons can’t be punished is because they don’t physically exist and therefore can’t go to the slammer or fry on an electric chair. The only punishment you can apply to a corporate person is a fine, and that’s a very poor punishment because the one thing corporations do exceedingly well is managing losses and profits, and a fine is nothing other than a negative entry in the ledger. If it’s small enough and the crime drove profits up, the corporate person will automatically reoffend, simply by plain business logic. That’s the nature of the beast.
As for the supreme court, if you think for a second this corrupt MAGA outfit will set about to tackle such an old and well-established business institution, I have a bridge to sell you.
The legal notion of corporate “personhood” is in the very first words of US law:
the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;
LITERALLY the first words of the United States Code:
§1. Words denoting number, gender, and so forth
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise-
words importing the singular include and apply to several persons, parties, or things;
words importing the plural include the singular;
words importing the masculine gender include the feminine as well;
words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present;
the words “insane” and “insane person” shall include every idiot, insane person, and person non compos mentis;
the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;
[emphasis mine]
The Supreme Court was right, the law is wrong. Undo this shit.
The corporate personhood doctrine is 200 years old. It’s nothing new. It’s disgusting, it’s dysfunctional, but it’s as American as it gets.
The reason why corporate persons can’t be punished is because they don’t physically exist and therefore can’t go to the slammer or fry on an electric chair. The only punishment you can apply to a corporate person is a fine, and that’s a very poor punishment because the one thing corporations do exceedingly well is managing losses and profits, and a fine is nothing other than a negative entry in the ledger. If it’s small enough and the crime drove profits up, the corporate person will automatically reoffend, simply by plain business logic. That’s the nature of the beast.
As for the supreme court, if you think for a second this corrupt MAGA outfit will set about to tackle such an old and well-established business institution, I have a bridge to sell you.
“We’ve always done it that way” is not a great reason to keep doing something wrong, though.
If it doesn’t breathe, eat, talk, and feel, it’s not a person. Calling it one doesn’t make it true.
To be clear this isn’t aimed at you, I’m pretty sure you’re not 200 years old and didn’t come up with the original idea.
The legal notion of corporate “personhood” is in the very first words of US law:
Congress can choose to break this.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/1
LITERALLY the first words of the United States Code:
[emphasis mine]
The Supreme Court was right, the law is wrong. Undo this shit.