Corporations: The Role Of Free Speech In The United States

According to David Schultz (2013) the Constitution does rule out corporations to be persons. Therefore, why would one think that corporations are persons entitled to Constitutional protection? Previously slaves were not considered persons in 1857 with the Dred Scott v. Sanford (Shultz, 2013). Also in 1971, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court did not define the fetus as a person (Shultz, 2013) . However, in 1886 in County of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the Supreme Court accepted that corporations were persons for purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment (Shultz, 2013). On one side, corporations have due process rights and cannot be searched without a warrant but corporations have no privileges against self-incrimination. The government has greater leeway to regulate corporate speech. In 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that efforts to prevent corporations from spending money for political purposes violated first amendment rights (Shultz, 2013).
Free speech can be both words used directly as well as actions. The actions can include things such as what we are seeing today like not standing for the saluting of the flag or playing of the national anthem. This was determined by the Supreme Court in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943 (“United States Courts, n.d.). Other examples include, but are not limited to: burning the flag and the wearing of black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War. Free speech is not, however, initiating actions that harm others. The case Schendk v. US 1919 claimed the example a person cannot yell fire in a theater (“United States Courts,