Subject: Re: [EL] FW: Floyd Abrams & Citzens United
From: "Smith, Brad" <BSmith@law.capital.edu>
Date: 10/2/2010, 10:48 AM
To: "election-law@mailman.lls.edu" <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>

But if corporations aren't people, then physically they can't speak, so you will have no worries.  They will never, with or without Citizens United, affect an election. 
 
But maybe they can speak like a robot!  But would programming a robot to speak be protected speech?  I assume so.  Why? - because a person had to program it.  Indeed, we really already have mechanical speech, as when recordings play a message over and over, or as when a person posts a political video on YouTube that others can then watch.  I presume that a deaf/mute person would be protected in programming a robot to make audible political statements on his behalf that, he feels, would be an effective way for him to communicate. 
 
Of course, the reality is that corporations are made up of people, and people have a right to associate, and associations of people have a right to speak.  And corporate personhood does not stem from a decision that never examined the issue.  I know that's Tom Hartmann's view, but Hartmann is neither a lawyer nor an historian, and it's just not true.  The idea of corporate personhood has existed since the nation's founding, and is well grounded in legal theory, history, and precedent. 
 
Bradley A. Smith
Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 236-6317
http://www.law.capital.edu/Faculty/Bios/bsmith.asp


From: election-law-bounces@mailman.lls.edu on behalf of Richard C. Bozian
Sent: Sat 10/2/2010 12:38 PM
To: election-law@mailman.lls.edu
Subject: [EL] FW: Floyd Abrams & Citzens United






Floyd Abrams has written a masterful exposition of the Citizens United decision. It is a  classical repetition of the fallacy of Xeno's Paradox which had the hare never catching the tortoise. One can justify anything by starting with a faulty assumption.

He justifies the decision on the basis of the 1st Amendment. The  1st amendment  refers to freedom of speech of "the people". Corporations are not people anymore than  is a robot performing human feats. Corporate personhood is a legal fiction that emerged from an  interpretation of a court's deliberation  that never examined or even considered  corporate personhood. 

I am impressed only with his craftsmanship.

Richard C. Bozian M.D. F.A.C.P.
Professor Emeritus of Medicne
University of Cincinnati.