Yes, corporations are people; cold, heartless people.

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The Supreme Court recently ruled that corporations can not be limited on contributions to campaigns because (in a nutshell):

• Corporations are legally "persons" and


• Limiting money in this regard is akin to limiting free speech

Wow. Of course. Corporations are people and money is speech. It's all so clear once John Oliver and Jon Stewart provide some hilarious views on this topic.

Actually, I've understood the law sees corporations equal to persons since I created my own corporation a few years ago (Full disclosure: this blog is owned by that corporation). I can see the legal necessities of that, but I have to wonder why the law doesn't see people and corporations similarly, and not as 1 to 1 exact mirror copies of each other. Sotomayor herself has voiced her concern about this view.

But then this decision goes further and also, like decisions before it, equates money spent with free speech.

I'm not thrilled with the outcome of the decision, but that's not the issue. The issue I have is the journey that brought us there. If legally a company equals a person, and money equals speech, isn't there something obscene about our laws? Isn't it a bit disconcerting that those logical/legal jumps are nothing but a glossed over point on a legal decision?

In the end, the Supreme Court has just made a legal declaration that corporations will be the biggest, loudest, people there are. What's to stop them? They have billions of dollars in "free speech" and we the people need a megaphone just to compete with the volume they will bring to the table.