Do we have a Sentencing Commission for Corporations?

[jody]

We have a United States Sentencing Commission ostensibly to ensure uniform and equitable sentences when convicted "human criminals" are punished. See TITLE 28 > PART III > CHAPTER 58 - UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION and UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION.

Beginning in 1886, SCOTUS has given corporations more rights so that corporations like Pinocchio threaten to become human. The recent case in which Nike, see article below, asked the court to recognize that corporations had the same freedom of speech as humans is evidence that corporations still want to be treated as humans, except corporations:

don't want to pay taxes,
aren't drafted into the military,
aren't sentenced to prison for corporate crimes,
aren't executed for capital crimes,
can negotiate tax deductible fines for corporate crimes.

Many progressives believe that corporations are a great threat to our form of government and that corporate crimes often go unpunished or under-punished.

Do we have a United States Sentencing Commission for Corporations?

Now Corporations Claim The "Right To Lie"

QUOTE
Corporations are created by humans to further the goal of making money. As Buckminster Fuller said in his brilliant essay The Grunch of Giants, "Corporations are neither physical nor metaphysical phenomena. They are socioeconomic ploys - legally enacted game-playing..."
Corporations are non-living, non-breathing, legal fictions. They feel no pain. They don't need clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, or healthy food to consume. They can live forever. They can't be put in prison. They can change their identity or appearance in a day, change their citizenship in an hour, rip off parts of themselves and create entirely new entities. Some have compared corporations with robots, in that they are human creations that can outlive individual humans, performing their assigned tasks forever.
UNQUOTE

[Aaron]

1. That 'right to lie' thing is not going to be any good for consumers

Anyone know the caseline for corporate personhood in the USSC? - the stuff leading up to the decision and the decision itself most interest me but any sort of case line would probably be handy.

OT: Jody do you know where I could find an explanation of the figures related to drug-war/prohibition/policy related violent crimes as a percentage of total violent crimes? I think I saw figures around here once before that something like 70% or 75% of violent crime was tied to drug use somehow but I can't remember the source - or if those numbers are even correct. If I remember the discussion correctly there was also some concern that adults up to age 22 or 24 were being classified as 'children' for gun violence statistics and in reality were drug involved gang-bangers or people otherwise engaged in a drug related lifestyle.

[jody]

2. I believe the following links will be useful.

DoJ “Drugs & Crime Facts”

A Collection of Links about Corporations

Corporate Watch

Corporate Works

Divine Right of Capital

Corporate Agribusiness Research Project (CARP)

The seminal case for corporations is SANTA CLARA COUNTY v. SOUTHERN PAC. R. CO., 118 U.S. 394 (1886)

[Aaron]

3. Perfect! Ty Jody :) (n/t)

[Spentastic]

4. What a steaming pantload!

Whoops! It's a different topic all together (no Airplane gags please).

Corporations are no longer bound by national law, the are truly supernational. There is no global government, at the moment corps definitely hold all the cards.