If corporations are bound to a morality different from the rest of us, should they be granted the same political and civil rights as natural persons?

Corporations are artificial persons under the law. They are legally obligated to maximize shareholder value, which often places them at odds with consumers (whom they injure and cheat), with the environment (which they despoil and pollute), and with their workers (whom they seek to pay as little as possible).

There is now a case before the Supreme Court which is considering granting them the same free speech rights to corporations as now enjoyed by natural human beings. If the Court rules in their favor, they will be able to purchase virtually unlimited amounts of speech in finite media markets, effectively crowding out natural citizens. They will be able to serve their own narrow profit-oriented concerns, and not the interests of their consumers, workers or citizens of the country in which they do business.

Given the immortality of corporations and the laws of compound interest, over time the playing field would become increasingly tilted so heavily in favor of corporations that natural citizens would be crowded out of the political process and lose the rights they now enjoy.