Legal Persons?

The law says corporations are "legal persons."  Hence the name/term "corporate," from the Latin corpus for body and corpare for to form a body.  In essence, a corporation can act like a person in forming contracts, to sue or be sued, etc.  Therein lies the problem.

There are lots of advantages to a corporation being held, in legal eyes, as a person.  But it is also controversial.  Is it any surprise that positions by the same persons are often contradictory?  Two examples of this are "inversion" and "political speech."

Here in Michigan, voters just passed, by a wide margin, Proposal A.  That eliminated a tax on business equipment, a tax which was levied annually.  Corporate-types (and their magnificent propaganda machines!) were able to present a favorable picture of Proposal A.  Of course, it benefited them, esp the giant corps, immensely--it cut their taxes.  Their argument, as seen in several ads, was that "We paid a tax on this piece of equipment when we bought it.  Why should we have to continue to pay a tax on it each year?  That's not fair."  (There's that word again, fair.)  Well, wait a minute.  I must pay taxes on, say, my house and property annually--each year!  I paid the year(s) I bought them.  Why should I have to pay property taxes every year?  "Oh, that's different--you're a person."  Wait a minute!  Aren't corporations legal persons??????  So, then, why should they (and now in reality are) be treated any differently than we real persons?  Hmmmmmm......

Of course, liberals opposed this Proposal A while conservatives favored it, both for obvious reasons.  Conservatives don't want so much government spending (unless they are fake conservatives like Establishment Republicans) and liberals love spending other people's money.  At the heart of the matter, for both groups, is the issue of  the "personhood" of corporations.

Now let's go back to the Citizens United case, delivered by the Supremes.  In it, the Supremes held that corporations (and other groups) also have the right of free speech because they are legal persons.  Conservatives lauded the ruling, which they insist upholds the right of free speech of corporations, legal persons.  Liberals lambasted the decision, of course, arguing that corporations aren't persons.  (What is the old saying, "I'll believe corporations are persons when one of them gets the death penalty?")

So, which is it?  If one supports Citizens United, one should oppose Proposal A and vice versa.