Well at least one justice seems to get the underlying hypocrisy of the so-called "originalists" who plan to use Citizens United v. FEC to extend constitutional rights to corporations through judicial fiat.
From the transcript of yesterday's oral arguments in Citizens United v. FEC, Justice Sotomayor made the following observation:
"Because what you are suggesting is that the courts who created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons, and there could be an argument made that that was the Court's error to start with, not Austin or McConnell, but the fact that the Court imbued a creature of State law with human characteristics."
What a breath of fresh air!
It's nice to see acknowledgment from a member of the Court that no act of Congress or any other legislative body ever conferred upon corporations First Amendment rights, let alone any other right under the Constitution.
Compare her statement to a later statement made by Justice Kennedy:
"Corporations have lots of knowledge about environment, transportation issues, and you are silencing them during the election."
Justice Kennedy's statement highlights for me just how through the looking glass we are on this whole issue.
Here he is, some fancy Supreme Court Justice. He's a member of one of the world's most exclusive groups.
He's supposed to be better than this.
In the midst of one of the Court's most important oral arguments in its history, he utters this nonsensical statement. He makes a statement that ignores the fundamental nature of the American system of democracy. A statement that ignores the fundamental nature of law itself.
Corporations are legal fictions. Corporations don't have knowledge. People do.
Just like how corporations don't have rights. People do.
By definition, corporations don't have anything that was not first bestowed upon them by the people who permitted their existence.
How have we lost sight of this?
At least Justice Sotomayor hasn't.
To quote Carl Spackler, "so I got that goin' for me, which is nice."