25-01-2010, 04:43 AM
In all of this it seems to me that basic definitions should be made as to "person", "citizen", "voter", "corporation", "union", "group", and so on.
When comparing a definition of a "person" as a biological organism of the human species who is mortal, and created by the merging of genetic materials from two other human beings*, then to try to ascribe such definitions to a cinstructred entity created for the legitimate and sole purpose of doing business and making profits, say, seems absolutely ridiculous.
A "corporation" may exist for centuries or for forever, if need be; it may never cease. It is clearly not a biological organism. It only exists as a document of incorporation for its legal existence. The physical aspects of a corporation may be land, buildings, machinery, and intellectual properties of ideas, formulas, and products it may manufacture, etc., just to throw out some examples.
Such physical things cannot think, nor vote. Human beings can perform such actions. They are the only ones who can function in a democracy to govern themselves.
Since corporations, as documents of incorporation or as physical entities even, cannot, corporations cannot have the same rights of Freedom of Speech guaranteed by the Bill of Rights because they cannot think nor speak. Speech is clearly a form of human communication through the medium of spoken or written llanguage.
Corporations may employee persons as managers and other employees, and somwe managers or owners or shareholders may functioin as representatives of a corporationm, but they are not "the": coirporation itself.
When comparing a definition of a "person" as a biological organism of the human species who is mortal, and created by the merging of genetic materials from two other human beings*, then to try to ascribe such definitions to a cinstructred entity created for the legitimate and sole purpose of doing business and making profits, say, seems absolutely ridiculous.
A "corporation" may exist for centuries or for forever, if need be; it may never cease. It is clearly not a biological organism. It only exists as a document of incorporation for its legal existence. The physical aspects of a corporation may be land, buildings, machinery, and intellectual properties of ideas, formulas, and products it may manufacture, etc., just to throw out some examples.
Such physical things cannot think, nor vote. Human beings can perform such actions. They are the only ones who can function in a democracy to govern themselves.
Since corporations, as documents of incorporation or as physical entities even, cannot, corporations cannot have the same rights of Freedom of Speech guaranteed by the Bill of Rights because they cannot think nor speak. Speech is clearly a form of human communication through the medium of spoken or written llanguage.
Corporations may employee persons as managers and other employees, and somwe managers or owners or shareholders may functioin as representatives of a corporationm, but they are not "the": coirporation itself.