HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Corporations and the First Amendment: Free Speech Rules (Episode 6)

Views:1026
@ReasonVids

Here are five rules of free speech and corporations. 

Rule #1: Corporations have First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court's first decision protecting individuals' free expression rights came in 1931. Its first decision protecting a corporation's free expression rights came just five years later, in 1936. That decision involved a newspaper corporation; but the Court's first decision protecting a nonmedia business corporation's free expression rights came five years after that, in 1941. From the 1950s onwards, many Court decisions protected for-profit corporations. Indeed, the very first American court decision striking down a state statute on free speech grounds took place in 1894, and it protected the rights of a corporation.

When the Supreme Court split sharply over corporate speech in the 2010 Citizens United case, no-one doubted that the First Amendment protects corporations generally; the question was whether there was an exception for corporate speech supporting or opposing political candidates.

Why is this so? Partly because corporations are, after all, made up of people. If the government takes a corporation's property, that doesn't hurt the "corporation" in some abstract sense—it hurts the corporation's stockholders. If the government stops The New York Times Co. from criticizing the President, that restricts the First Amendment rights of editors at The New York Times. 

Rule #2: The media doesn't have any greater First Amendment rights than other speakers. The "freedom of the press" isn't the freedom of a business category called "the press." It has been understood, since the 1700s, as the freedom of all to use the printing press (and its technological heirs). There are some statutes that give institutional media special additional rights beyond what the First Amendment gives them—but the Constitution doesn't distinguish reporters from bloggers, or media businesses from other businesses.

This means that the First Amendment protects General Motors and Walmart as much as it protects The New York Times or CNN or The New Republic. If GM's corporate speech could be restricted, then the New York Times' speech could be, too. And because The New York Times' speech can't be restricted, then neither can GM's.

This, by the way, means that First Amendment law doesn't have to decide who is media and who isn't. Is Google media? How about Amazon, which sells electronics, sells books, and makes movies? The Supreme Court doesn't have to decide, because all corporations have First Amendment rights, regardless of whether they are "media."

Rule #3: Unions have free speech rights, too. Citizens United struck down a federal law that banned both corporations and unions from speaking out for or against political candidates.

Rule #4: Individual stockholders can't veto corporations' political spending—whether those corporations publish newspapers or make widgets. Generally speaking, American corporations are run on a majority-of-shares-rules basis; individual objectors can generally sell their stock, but they can't order managers around.

That's a familiar rule for all sorts of spending. If you don't like Ben & Jerry's liberal messages, you don't have to buy their ice cream. But you can't just buy a share and then demand that they stop saying things that you, as a minority stockholder, dislike. Likewise, if you don't like a company's charitable contributions, or the tone of its advertising, or its speech opposing unionization, you can't stop such corporate action even if you own shares. And you can't control The New York Times' editorial policy even if you are a stockholder.

The same is true for spending about political candidates. If a corporation wants to endorse a candidate, dissenting shareholders can't stop that any more than they can stop any of the corporation's other action or speech.

Rule #5:  Corporate and union direct contributions to candidate campaigns can be sharply limited, though independent spending is fully protected. The rationale for this is complicated, but basically direct contributions of money to candidates, whether by corporations or individuals, are less constitutionally protected than speech (including expensive speech) by those corporations or individuals.

Written by Eugene Volokh, who is a First Amendment law professor at UCLA.
Produced and edited by Austin Bragg, who is not.
Additional graphics by Joshua Swain.

This is the fifth episode of Free Speech Rules, a video series on free speech and the law. Volokh is the co-founder of The Volokh Conspiracy, a blog hosted at Reason.com.

This is not legal advice.
If this were legal advice, it would be followed by a bill.
Please use responsibly.

-----

Music: "Lobby Time," by Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
    Thumbnail for Trump Is Terrible on Trade. Top 2020 Dems Are No Better.4:10
    Trump Is Terrible on Trade. Top 2020 Dems Are No Better.
    ReasonVids
    951 views
    Thumbnail for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Gay Marriage, Tech, and the GOP9:59
    Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Gay Marriage, Tech, and the GOP
    ReasonVids
    907 views
    Thumbnail for Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Won't Vote for Hillary0:36
    Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Won't Vote for Hillary
    ReasonVids
    953 views
    Thumbnail for Super Silly Strawberry Scones! | Lalaloopsy Kitchen | Cooking Videos for Kids | Lalaloopsy3:43
    Super Silly Strawberry Scones! | Lalaloopsy Kitchen | Cooking Videos for Kids | Lalaloopsy
    invidious
    434 views
    Thumbnail for Matt Taibbi on Misogyny, the Left vs. Free Speech, and the Killing of Eric Garner1:04:19
    Matt Taibbi on Misogyny, the Left vs. Free Speech, and the Killing of Eric Garner
    ReasonVids
    794 views
    Thumbnail for What We Saw: National School Choice Week Kick-Off, New Orleans5:23
    What We Saw: National School Choice Week Kick-Off, New Orleans
    ReasonVids
    853 views
    Thumbnail for cuddler fighter0:14
    cuddler fighter
    AOUisgay
    516 views
    Thumbnail for How Third Parties Are Getting Screwed This Election Season3:30
    How Third Parties Are Getting Screwed This Election Season
    ReasonVids
    1021 views
    Thumbnail for How California's Environmental Mandates Led to Blackouts9:45
    How California's Environmental Mandates Led to Blackouts
    ReasonVids
    941 views
    Thumbnail for 11/25(月)朝刊チェック:選挙のたびに言うこと変える残念な人々 | 菅野完2:46:06
    11/25(月)朝刊チェック:選挙のたびに言うこと変える残念な人々 | 菅野完
    invidious
    152 views
    Thumbnail for Ending the Global Drug War: Voices from the Front Lines6:19
    Ending the Global Drug War: Voices from the Front Lines
    ReasonVids
    924 views
    Thumbnail for Coronavirus Is the Health of the State2:42
    Coronavirus Is the Health of the State
    ReasonVids
    990 views
    Thumbnail for Larry Summers Calls Milton Friedman a "Devil Figure"0:33
    Larry Summers Calls Milton Friedman a "Devil Figure"
    ReasonVids
    896 views
    Thumbnail for Remy: Arkansas Badonkadonk (Hillary Clinton Trace Adkins Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Parody)1:54
    Remy: Arkansas Badonkadonk (Hillary Clinton Trace Adkins Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Parody)
    ReasonVids
    973 views
    Thumbnail for Pm Trudeau Gets Schooled By Xi On Leaking Private Conversations1:00
    Pm Trudeau Gets Schooled By Xi On Leaking Private Conversations
    bestofvoatxyz
    667 views
    Thumbnail for [🔴긴급 브리핑 ] 김문수-이낙연 '개헌·공동정부 합의' 관련 브리핑 ㅣ 더불어민주당 ㅣ 5월 27일 | JTV뉴스7:43:07
    [🔴긴급 브리핑 ] 김문수-이낙연 '개헌·공동정부 합의' 관련 브리핑 ㅣ 더불어민주당 ㅣ 5월 27일 | JTV뉴스
    invidious
    46 views
    Thumbnail for Two Giant Gorilla plays the car | TheKoopZilla1:02
    Two Giant Gorilla plays the car | TheKoopZilla
    invidious
    285 views
    Thumbnail for Art Is a Weapon9:32
    Art Is a Weapon
    AmericanRenaissance
    1427 views
    Thumbnail for When 3 SHORTCUTS Are Obvious But 1 ISN'T | Dapper11:34
    When 3 SHORTCUTS Are Obvious But 1 ISN'T | Dapper
    invidious
    316 views
    Thumbnail for When you find the perfect accessory for your Toyota | FunnyMemeSpot0:08
    When you find the perfect accessory for your Toyota | FunnyMemeSpot
    invidious
    98 views
    Thumbnail for How To Survive A Kidnapping | Law By Mike1:00
    How To Survive A Kidnapping | Law By Mike
    invidious
    93 views
    Thumbnail for Why the GOP Won't Mention John McCain's Actual Legislative Accomplishments2:15
    Why the GOP Won't Mention John McCain's Actual Legislative Accomplishments
    ReasonVids
    1077 views
    Thumbnail for iPhone 16: NO ONE TOLD ME 😭 | Nathan Espinoza0:41
    iPhone 16: NO ONE TOLD ME 😭 | Nathan Espinoza
    invidious
    231 views
    Thumbnail for The Lion King 2000 VHS54:18
    The Lion King 2000 VHS
    mattknezz05
    147 views
    Thumbnail for NASA LIVE: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore Return To Earth | NASA Astronauts | SpaceX Crew-9 |N18G11:55:01
    NASA LIVE: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore Return To Earth | NASA Astronauts | SpaceX Crew-9 |N18G
    invidious
    46 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle