A Corporation Has No Inherent Right to Exist
A corporation is a legal entity organized through a set of arbitrary rules defined by people for the purpose of meeting some business aim. The concept of a corporation is a relatively recent one in human history and there is nothing about one of these organizations that should make it eligible for the protections that we ascribe to humans through laws like the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The people that comprise the organization that we call a company or corporation have those rights as individuals. Those people also have responsibilities that are part of the social contract that makes it possible for us all to coexist as a group.
The individuals that own, run or are employed by a corporation have the right to believe in whatever faith they want. Like an increasing percentage of the population, individuals are free to not believe. Those are personal choices that cannot and should not ever been imposed on anyone else.
The corporation on the other hand is nothing more than arbitrary legal and the people that run the company must follow the rules that apply to all companies. The organization has no right to impose the beliefs of its owners or managers on others.
This is not a question of freedom of (or from) religion. Every American has the right. If a business is going to take advantage of the privileges granted to it under the law, it must also respect the rights of employees and customers. If the business owner or manager cannot deal with this concept, the corporation should lose those privileges.
The US Supreme Court has been wrong about corporate personhood for nearly two centuries. We must not grant human rights to an arbitrary organization that can spring up or be dissolved on a whim. The corporatocracy is winning and rapidly consuming what is left of American democracy. It’s time to reverse course before it’s too late, although I’m afraid that time may have already passed us by.
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