corporations a people? it's a real legal concept
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CORPORATIONS_AS_PEOPLE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-03-03-09-19
FILE - This June 30, 2014, file photo shows customers walking into a Hobby Lobby store in Oklahoma City. There may be more to that "we the people" notion than you thought.These are boom times for the concept of "corporate personhood." Corporations are people? Mitt Romney got mocked during the 2012 presidential campaign for the very idea. But it turns out the principle has been lurking in U.S. law for more than a century, and the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave it more oomph this week when it ruled that certain businesses are entitled to exercise religious rights just as do people. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There may be more to that "we the people" notion than you thought.
These are boom times for the concept of "corporate personhood."
Corporations are people?
Mitt Romney got mocked during the 2012 presidential campaign for the very idea.
But it turns out the principle has been lurking in U.S. law for more than a century, and the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave it more oomph this week when it ruled that certain businesses are entitled to exercise religious rights, just as do people.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court's majority, said protecting the religious rights of closely held corporations, which are often small, family-run businesses, "protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control them."