Justice Sotomayor Questions Corporate Personhood

In a brave move for a new Justice, Sonya Sotomayer pointed out that the legal precedent for the "Corporations are people too" doctrine, which was added by a court reporter to the opinion in the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad based on an off the record comment made by the Chief Justice in the case, should possibly be examined more closely. The Roberts Court is all set to expand the power of corporations even further by allowing them to pour money into political campaigns in the name of their supposed First Amendment right to "free speech." If the court goes the wrong way on this, there is no hope that the voices of ordinary citizens can be heard over the clank of cash being dumped into the political process. At issue in the current case is the "documentary film" which was a whole- sale trashing of Hillary Clinton funded by a corporate group opposed to her candidacy for President. It was not widely aired in the last election due to the Feingold FCC regulation prohibiting corporate money from being directly funneled into campaign troughs. If the conservatives on the Court prevail, our political system will be overwhelmed even further by corporate money than it is now. It is some comfort that Sotomayor looks as though she will exercise some independent judgment and perhaps earn the respect of progressives who were worried she might prove to be a reliable centrist or even conservative jurist.