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Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by rayiner on Friday February 16, 2024 @12:48PM (#39400434)
The founders certainly intended that constitutional rights would apply to people’s business activities (e.g. the contract clause). So the real question is whether the founders intended that business owners would be deprived of those rights merely because of the legal structure of their business.
Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by dctoedt on Friday February 16, 2024 @01:20PM (#39400910)
> So the real question is whether the founders intended that business owners would be deprived of those rights merely because of the legal structure of their business.

No, the real question is whether the framers intended to prohibit people from implicitly trading away certain individual rights in exchange for limiting what would otherwise be their unlimited personal liability.

Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by AndrewKemendo on Friday February 16, 2024 @09:56PM (#39405901)
They made their positions clear with the 3/5ths rule
Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by paulddraper on Monday February 19, 2024 @03:06AM (#39427225)
I'm not sure what that has to do with personal liability.
Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by lokar on Friday February 16, 2024 @01:04PM (#39400659)
Did the founders envision limited liability and the public stock corporation?

Business activity was vastly different at the founding

Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by SpicyLemonZest on Friday February 16, 2024 @02:42PM (#39401967)
Did they envision labor unions with mandatory and exclusive bargaining rights? I'm not sure what the point of going down that rabbithole would be in this case.
Re:Amazon joins companies arguing US labor board is unconsti... by skissane on Friday February 16, 2024 @09:36PM (#39405791)
> Did the founders envision limited liability and the public stock corporation?

They were aware of corporations as a business structure. English public stock corporations had played a major role in the founding of the colonies of Virginia (Virginia Company of London and Virginia Company of Plymouth) and Massachusetts (Massachusetts Bay Company), and also in the history of Canada (Hudson's Bay Company). They were certainly aware of these concepts. Corporations are older than the United States is.

That said, it was a much rarer business structure, only used for very large firms, because incorporating a company required a special act of Parliament – a power inherited by the colonial (and thereafter state) legislatures. It was not until the 19th century that it became the norm to for companies to be incorporated under a general incorporation statute, as opposed to a separate incorporation statute being passed to incorporate each individual company.