As the government grants more freedoms to corporate entities, it begs the question as to whether an Amendment to the Constitution is needed to define personhood in this country. by Bill Gee
(centrist)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
The quote above from one of Shakespeares more popular works is often cited by those who seek to make the point that a person's race or ethnicity should not differentiate them from the rest of humanity. In fact, since the ratification of the 14th Amendment, we seek to make no distinction between one US Citizen from another in the eyes of the law. The question that many of us have been asking in light of several controversial Supreme Court decisions is whether the definition of personhood under the law should also extend to non-human entities such as corporations. In other words, can a company legally claim protections under the Constitution that all US Citizens enjoy?
The Definition of a Corporation
A corporation is an entity that has been granted a Charter of Incorporation from a states legislative body, which authorizes it to issue stock, elect a Board of Directors and conduct business as a limited liability organization. Ownership is divided amongst the various shareholders and the Board of Directors is responsible for most of the entity's decisions.
The Definition of a Person
While the literal definition of a person is controversial in its nuance, most people believe that a person is a human entity that is born from physical parents and will eventually die. Under the law of the United States, a person is granted the same rights and protections regardless of sex, race, or any other defining characteristic. A person is responsible for their own property and they are held accountable for their own decisions.
Characteristics in Common
Both a Corporation and a person share the following characteristics in this country.
Liability: Both a corporation and a person are responsible for their actions and therefore they can be sued if their actions results in harm. While a person can be tried in both the Criminal and Civil Court system, a corporation can only be tried in Civil Court.
Bankruptcy Protection: If either a person or a Corporation finds their liabilities exceeding their assets, they have the right to seek protection from their creditors by declaring bankruptcy.
Speech: Both a Corporation and a person has the protection of the 1st Amendments guarantee of freedom of speech, provided that the speech itself is not intended to do harm. While a person has a variety of communication tools available to them, a Corporations speech is in the form of money that is used to support the speech of an individual person.
Characteristics Not in Common
Criminal Liability: As mentioned above, when a person commits a wrong, they can be tried in both a Criminal Court and a Civil Court. When a Corporation commits a wrong, they can be only sued in the Civil Court. While persons within the corporate hierarchy can be tried in criminal court for crimes committed in the name of the corporation, the corporation itself cannot go to jail, so therefore they are free from criminal prosecution.
Longevity: Despite the fact that the average longevity rate is constantly increasing, a person has a finite life span. Eventually, he or she will die. On the other hand, as long as a Corporation is able to operate successfully as a going concern, a corporation can theoretically live forever.
Assimilation: A person will retain their personhood for as long as they live, while a Corporation has the possibility of being assimilated by another corporation by way of a merger or an acquisition. When a corporation is merged into another, it loses its unique character and all of its rights as a legal entity.
The Unfair Advantage
As a going concern with an unlimited lifespan and the deep pockets of thousands of shareholders, both the legal and economic advantage belongs to the Corporation over the individual person. When a person commits a crime, they can go to jail. When a corporation systematically robs thousands of individuals of their life's savings, the ability to find individual persons within the organization to hold criminally responsible is problematic, if not impossible. Occasionally as "sacrificial lamb" is handed over to the criminal courts, but the entities themselves are rarely held fully accountable.
When money can be used as a substitute for protected speech, the corporation is free to use their vast resources to promote their particular point of view, while the individual person is limited to what they can write and what they can say. When corporations make it a company policy to limit the speech of their employees in order to protect trade secrets and to protect against insider trading, the individual rights of persons are further eroded.
When a person is limited in how much money they can give to a political candidate and a corporation is free to set up entities that are free to give unlimited funding to promote an individual candidate that is free from audit, the individual person is further diminished.
The Need for Change
A change is needed to the Constitution in order to balance the power between corporations and the individual people of this country.
1) The Constitution needs to clearly define a person as a human being, and that any man-made entities are not afforded any of its protections.
2) The definition of Speech must be clarified to include written, verbal, and broadcasted information, and should clearly declare that money is NOT speech, and therefore is subject to public examination when it is used to promote the speech of others.
A Corporation Does Not Bleed
To paraphrase Shakespeare, when you prick a corporation, it cannot bleed. If you tickle it, it will not laugh. If you poison it, it will not die. However, if you wrong it, it will often seek revenge. One characteristic out of four does not make it a person. Most people would call that a monster.
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The views expressed
in this article are those of Bill Gee only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
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