So the good (and in my mind reasonable) folks of Porter Township, PA have passed a law specifying that denying corporate personhood. In other words, corporations do not have the rights afforded to natural human beings, but only the privleges afforded to them by the society at large. They do not have a right of "free expression" (nice example: Nike has been claiming in court it has a "right to lie" in it's advertising and press releases, since it has the "right of free speech"), they do not have the right to be protected from discrimination. and they do not have 5th ammendment protections as many corporations have claimed over the years.
Many people, namely conservatives but I'm sure also moderates and liberals alike will be uneasy about this direction, afraid that it will hurt companies and business in the US.
Frankly, the US is the only place where a corporation is a "person" under law, and business seems to do quite fine in other places too.
And the recent reduction of civil rights in the US gives a great precedent of reassurance: "Only the corporations who have done something wrong have anything to worry about" with a reduction in rights of this nature.
And I'm sure the business community will agree that corporations that do wrong are the very small minority of businesses.
=)
Posted by illovich at January 10, 2003 10:18 AM