Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Reflection Week 6


I reread the Supreme Court’s majority opinions (and its concurrences) alongside its dissent. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the Court’s opinion using the First Amendment as his source, stating: “When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.” Kennedy also argued that “[t]he government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.” The author of the dissend, Justice Stevens, wrote: “The basic premise underlying the court’s ruling is its iteration, and constant reiteration, of the proposition that the First Amendment bars regulatory distinctions based on a speaker’s identity, including its ‘identity’ as a corporation. While that glittering generality has rhetorical appeal, it is not a correct statement of the law.” This case would only add to the big “debate” over whether or not corporations are people (just writing that sentence made my brain hurt). As Justice Ginsburg would say, “A corporation is a form of business enterprise. It gives the owners a certain advantage; they’re not going to be liable for the debts of the corporation beyond the capital of the corporation itself.”

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