Are Corporations People?

 

Are corporations people? Consider some differences. When a corporation is charged with a crime against society for various things like product recall; chemical dumping, oil leaks from pipelines, or drugs that cause harm, they are simply fined without anyone in the corporation having to be punished for the crime. By law,, the corporation has legal protections beyond those of any citizen, in that; the corporation’s liability for a criminal act is limited. Officers and employees of the corporation are shielded from prosecution by the articles of incorporation. It becomes very difficult to prove guilt when many hands are creating the product or service and the usual defense is to take the fifth amendment by corporate officers and deny any personal knowledge of the wrong doing. Thus it is seldom that any employees are prosecuted for acts of crime against the citizens of the United States.. Such a distinction in liability protection between corporations and people seems to be reason enough to treat corporations differently. Simply, it maybe described as “corporate buck passing.”

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