US Courts: Corporations are people, primates are not

Started by CountDeMoney, December 05, 2014, 12:48:03 AM

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The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Tonitrus on December 05, 2014, 12:52:19 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 05, 2014, 12:48:03 AM

In its ruling, the judges wrote: "So far as legal theory is concerned, a person is any being whom the law regards as capable of rights and duties.

"Needless to say, unlike human beings, chimpanzees cannot bear any legal duties, submit to societal responsibilities or be held legally accountable for their actions.''


I think I've known a few people who could also fit that criteria.

Or categories of people, which is a point the petitioners made.  I.e. children do not bear legal duties and their legal obligations are usually voidable, but they still have habeas rights.  The court responded to that argument in a footnote but not entirely convincingly.  Not necessarily attacking the result, but the court's reasoning - tying the existence of habeas rights to social contract theory - is questionable.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Malthus

Primates are not legally people?

Bad news for the Church of England - the Roundheads were right.  :P [/Civil War Hijack]
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Razgovory

I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.


Malthus

Quote from: Razgovory on December 05, 2014, 04:41:26 PM
Wait a moment, I'm a Primate!

I didn't even know you were a member of the Church of England.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Sheilbh

Quote from: Malthus on December 05, 2014, 03:52:27 PM
Primates are not legally people?

Bad news for the Church of England - the Roundheads were right.  :P [/Civil War Hijack]
:o Good Laud.
Let's bomb Russia!