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- Title
Speech and Spending: Corporate Political Speech Rights under the First Amendment.
- Authors
Gowri, Aditi
- Abstract
To what extent should the expression of corporations on politically or ideologically controversial issues be protected under the First Amendment? Should they have a right of free speech equivalent to that of human persons? The United States Supreme Court from 1978 onwards has been ambivalent on this question. In First National Bank v. Bellotti 98 S.Ct. 1407 (1978) the Court held that States may not restrict expenditures of a corporation in publicizing its views regarding a public referendum issue, even where the issue does not materially concern the business of the corporation. On the other hand, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce 110 S.Ct. 1391 (1990) upheld a State ban on election contributions from a corporation's general funds. What is more, the corporation at issue in this case was a non-profit, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. The Bellotti ruling barely passed, with five of the nine Supreme Court Justices supporting the decision; and the Austin decision was supported by six out of nine. Moreover, the language and reasoning of the Court's opinion in Austin closely resembles that of the dissenting Justices in Bellotti, and vice versa. Thus to say that "the Court" has changed its opinion in the interim would be somewhat misleading. Rather, the two decisions are a sign of two distinct schools of thought among the Justices, neither of which has yet asserted its dominance. Legally, the issue of political speech rights for corporations is volatile at present.
- Subjects
UNITED States; CORPORATE speech; UNITED States. Supreme Court; LEGAL judgments; FREEDOM of speech; BUSINESS &; politics; BUSINESS ethics; AUSTIN v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (Supreme Court case); FIRST National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (Supreme Court case); CORPORATE political activity; POLITICAL participation
- Publication
Journal of Business Ethics, 1998, Vol 17, Issue 16, p1835
- ISSN
0167-4544
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1023/A:1005882124095