“Presumably in a free market economy the players require some restraints in their pursuit of society’s resources and creation of externalities, and these restraints are to be imposed by government acting in response to the preferences of individual human beings who have a much broader range of preferences than simply wealth maximization. To allow the wealth maximizing business corporation a powerful voice in determining how social resources are to be allocated by government is to give that corporation significant power in determining how the rules of the only game it is playing should be changed, rather than confining it to play under the rules preferred by human individuals.” [1]

The Corporation

A corporation is a creature of the state; it is not a natural creature created by the Almighty and entitled to the rights of flesh and blood human beings. The language of judicial supporters of corporate personhood mingles various kinds of association. In his lengthy Austin dissent, Justice Scalia referred to “that type of voluntary association known as a corporation”, “that form of association known as a for-profit corporation,” and “those private associations known as corporations.” In his Citizens United concurring opinion, Scalia refers to “associational speech”, “the right to speak in association with other individual persons”, “the speech of many individual Americans who have association in a common cause, giving the leadership of the party [Republican or Democrat] to right to speak on their behalf. The association of individuals in a business corporation is no different – or at least it cannot be denied the right to speak on the simplistic ground that it is not “an individual American.”

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