Verizon Says Phone Record Disclosure is Protected Free Speech
May 8th, 2007Via: Arstechnica:
Verizon is one of the phone companies currently being sued over its alleged disclosure of customer phone records to the NSA. In a response to the court last week, the company asked for the entire consolidated case against it to be thrown out—on free speech grounds.
The response also alleges that the case should be thrown out because even looking into the issue could violate state secrets, of course, but a much longer section of the response tries to make the case that Verizon has a First Amendment right to “petition” the government. “Based on plaintiffs’ own allegations, defendants’ right to communicate such information to the government is fully protected by the Free Speech and Petition Clauses of the First Amendment,” argue Verizon’s lawyers.
//MOD Tim, you’re sometimes so far off topic that I wonder if your comments are generated by a clueless robot. Either keep your comments on topic, or you’re done here. Got it? Good. -Kevin
A non-living inhuman entity (i.e. a corporation) is not a citizen, and thus not entitled to any such protection granted to US citizens under law.
Nice try.
uh… fallout11, are you arguing law or morality? From a legal perspective, corporations have exactly the same protections as US citizens, since they are viewed as “fictional persons”. That is precisely how we got to our current very fucked up situation.
Whether this state of affairs is in fact desirable or moral is a whole other issue…
fallout11,
Thom explains in deatail on how corporations can to enjoy the same rights and privileges accorded to “natural persons.” This is a good place to start your discovery of just what that means and how it explains the mess we are in today.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/theft.shtml
You may also want to watch the film “The Corporationâ€, which you can download (http://www.thecorporation.com/) as well as purchase.
I’ve seen (and own) ‘The Corporation’, and yes, I was arguing morality, not legality.