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A comment on Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Data Searches. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by _delirium on Thursday April 14, 2016 @02:32PM (#11499257)
There are a variety of anti-Citizens-United positions, but the strongest (and most problematic) one is that corporations are not people, and the Bill of Rights secures rights only to people, therefore the First Amendment is inapplicable to corporations. That would, at the very least, require a revision in important precedents like New York Times Co. v. Sullivan [1], which assume that the First Amendment is applicable to corporations' publishing activities.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by thegasman on Thursday April 14, 2016 @04:20PM (#11500027)
Corporations are people. They are taxed like people, they break laws like people, and they own property like people.

They just can't vote.

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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by AlexandrB on Thursday April 14, 2016 @05:48PM (#11500594)
In every other way they are not like people. They are neither mortal nor corporeal (in the sense that a human body can be imprisoned or damaged). They can feel no emotion and are not subject to disease. This is important because humans are limited in myriad ways that corporations aren't and by giving corporations human rights the balance of power between actual humans and corporations tilts to the latter.

For example, while they can break the laws like people, corporations are not punished the same. When was the last time a corporation was "executed" (e.g. corporate charter revoked)?

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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by voxic11 on Thursday April 14, 2016 @06:05PM (#11500704)
Last one I could find was in California in 1976.
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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by jessaustin on Friday April 15, 2016 @09:20AM (#11504029)
This should certainly be a more common occurrence.
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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by frandroid on Thursday April 14, 2016 @04:36PM (#11500134)
Corporations are shells for human people (!!) to commit criminal acts, but shelter these human people from the legal consequences of these acts.
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Re:Microsoft Sues Justice Department Over Secret Customer Da... by PhantomGremlin on Thursday April 14, 2016 @08:37PM (#11501309)
Very true.

But, in all fairness, that's not their primary purpose, it's merely a side effect of their overall utility. Most people in most corporations are decidedly not criminal, and they don't behave as criminals.

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