At 05:27 PM 3/25/04 -0500, mfidelman@ntcorp.com wrote:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004, Harmon Seaver wrote:

...

Nonsense -- corporations are not humans, they have zero rights.

Unfortunately, there are a whole slew of Supreme Court decisions that say otherwise - mostly applying the 14th amendment (you know, freeing the slaves) to grant free speech and other constitutional protections to corporations.

1. The 14th says that anything Congress is prohibited from doing, states (and other local govs) are too. Slavery is merely a historical aside. (Were the 14th not there, California could ban speech, support religions, deny the right to keep and bear arms..) 2. Humans don't lose their rights when they form voluntary associations. That's all the corporate decisions are saying. Unfortunately, the *opposite* is practiced. I, as an individual, can choose not to hire <ethnic>, but a group of people together are threatened with violence should they care to choose similarly. Freedom isn't being able to do what you like, it's allowing someone else to do or say something you hate and supporting their right to do so. Marshall Clow