• [ network ]
  • goatmatrix.net
  • gvid.tv
  • img.gvid.tv
  • games.gvid.tv
  • apps.gvid.tv
HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

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

Views:1075
@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
    1011 views
    Thumbnail for 44 Ways to Say TSA: What do the initials "TSA" really stand for?1:15
    44 Ways to Say TSA: What do the initials "TSA" really stand for?
    ReasonVids
    980 views
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Little Pink House4:09
    Stossel: Little Pink House
    ReasonVids
    973 views
    Thumbnail for DOGS! episode 1: Scampis ball | drspastic6:01
    DOGS! episode 1: Scampis ball | drspastic
    invidious
    448 views
    Thumbnail for ⚽ Debrief PSG - Atlético de Madrid (4-0) / CDM des Clubs | Winamax1:20:00
    ⚽ Debrief PSG - Atlético de Madrid (4-0) / CDM des Clubs | Winamax
    invidious
    115 views
    Thumbnail for Did Doctors Overtreating With Opioids Cause the Overdose Crisis? A Soho Forum Debate1:21:10
    Did Doctors Overtreating With Opioids Cause the Overdose Crisis? A Soho Forum Debate
    ReasonVids
    846 views
    Thumbnail for V day0:13
    V day
    bestofvid8
    604 views
    Thumbnail for Sons of Wichita: Q&A with Daniel Schulman About the Koch Brothers14:47
    Sons of Wichita: Q&A with Daniel Schulman About the Koch Brothers
    ReasonVids
    951 views
    Thumbnail for Party Days Are Over: Dawn Hayes v Keith Hayes - Season 26 Episode 55 | Divorce Court20:07
    Party Days Are Over: Dawn Hayes v Keith Hayes - Season 26 Episode 55 | Divorce Court
    invidious
    169 views
    Thumbnail for Memoirs of an Invisible 57 Year Old Woman | Grunt Speak32:03
    Memoirs of an Invisible 57 Year Old Woman | Grunt Speak
    Terrence Popp
    750 views
    Thumbnail for Is The Jacket libertarian?1:17
    Is The Jacket libertarian?
    ReasonVids
    1008 views
    Thumbnail for This LA Musician Built $1,200 Tiny Houses for the Homeless. Then the City Seized Them.14:04
    This LA Musician Built $1,200 Tiny Houses for the Homeless. Then the City Seized Them.
    ReasonVids
    1054 views
    Thumbnail for Red Eye's Andy Levy on News, Satire, and Political Correctness9:44
    Red Eye's Andy Levy on News, Satire, and Political Correctness
    ReasonVids
    1040 views
    Thumbnail for Is Hillary Clinton Right That The Rich Don't Pay Their "Fair Share" of Taxes?1:32
    Is Hillary Clinton Right That The Rich Don't Pay Their "Fair Share" of Taxes?
    ReasonVids
    907 views
    Thumbnail for Meet the Utah State Senator Who Switched from Republican to Libertarian8:43
    Meet the Utah State Senator Who Switched from Republican to Libertarian
    ReasonVids
    1054 views
    Thumbnail for 3D Fiscal House of Horrors!: Now in 2D!5:52
    3D Fiscal House of Horrors!: Now in 2D!
    ReasonVids
    942 views
    Thumbnail for Drew Carey and Reason.tv - Battle of the Bacon Dogs6:48
    Drew Carey and Reason.tv - Battle of the Bacon Dogs
    ReasonVids
    946 views
    Thumbnail for Welfare Pays More than Minimum Wage in 35 States: Q&A with Cato's Michael Tanner6:54
    Welfare Pays More than Minimum Wage in 35 States: Q&A with Cato's Michael Tanner
    ReasonVids
    898 views
    Thumbnail for The Feds Arrested Aaron Sandusky Because He Was Too Successful, Says Dan Forman0:53
    The Feds Arrested Aaron Sandusky Because He Was Too Successful, Says Dan Forman
    ReasonVids
    930 views
    Thumbnail for No Child Left Alone: Getting the Government Out of Parenting12:13
    No Child Left Alone: Getting the Government Out of Parenting
    ReasonVids
    866 views
    Thumbnail for Moms Say, "No More Drug War!"2:58
    Moms Say, "No More Drug War!"
    ReasonVids
    1015 views
    Thumbnail for LIVE: Chandrababu Free Gas Corruption | AP Free Gas Cylinder  | ఇదేం గ్యాస్ కొట్టుడు బాబు @SakshiTV | Sakshi TV11:54:56
    LIVE: Chandrababu Free Gas Corruption | AP Free Gas Cylinder | ఇదేం గ్యాస్ కొట్టుడు బాబు @SakshiTV | Sakshi TV
    invidious
    236 views
    Thumbnail for 「テレ玉presents 川口ナイトレース」 裏実況LIVE 最終日 2025年2月8日 | 川口オートレース公式チャンネル3:51:35
    「テレ玉presents 川口ナイトレース」 裏実況LIVE 最終日 2025年2月8日 | 川口オートレース公式チャンネル
    invidious
    147 views
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Silk Road Founder Jailed, Drug Sales Up5:40
    Stossel: Silk Road Founder Jailed, Drug Sales Up
    ReasonVids
    879 views
    Thumbnail for Donald Trump, Joel Osteen, and the Evangelical "Money Cult"21:24
    Donald Trump, Joel Osteen, and the Evangelical "Money Cult"
    ReasonVids
    1031 views

points

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