A modification to the Proposed 28th Amendment

lessig:

Consistent with the brilliant call by Rootstrikers.org, I have modified Publius’ proposed 28th Amendment to assure that at least the First Amendment would not be construed to grant to any non-natural person (i.e., a corporation) any “unalienable” (as the Declaration puts it) rights. The added text in ¶2 is as follows: 

Nor shall the First Amendment be construed to vest in any non-natural person any unalienable constitutional rights. 

This version of the “corporations are not persons” movement is meant to be as narrow as possible to achieve the change we need. There’s no reason not to allow legislatures to vest corporations with “personhood” when that’s convenient and helpful — e.g., it’s useful to be able to sue Exxon as a person for damages done by an oil tanker. The key is to make sure that a corporation can’t claim a constitutional right against the judgment by a legislature. 

Notes

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  5. sonicbloom11 reblogged this from markcoatney and added:
    And what happens when computers become beings with self-awareness, consciousness and other attributes befitting...
  6. lazenby said: I think ‘non-natural’ is a phrase that could give a lot of semantic play if someone wanted to shake it in the future. Maybe something like ‘any entity whose legal status has been granted rather than recognized’ instead?
  7. markcoatney reblogged this from lessig
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