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Article

26 Jan 2012

Author:
Foresight News [USA]

Corporate Personhood and the Supreme Court [USA]

The Citizens United ruling on campaign finance was one of the most controversial...decisions in recent Supreme Court history. Critics argue that by ruling that corporations constitute persons with unrestricted First Amendment Rights when it comes to independent political funding, the Supreme Court has fundamentally changed the nature of democracy in America by giving disproportionate influence to those who can afford it...[T]he issue of corporate personhood will once again be argued before the Supreme Court...[T]he US Supreme Court will hear arguments in Kiobel vs Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (Shell)...[The] case has been brought against the...oil giant by...Nigerians who claim the company bears responsibility for aiding and abetting in the ‘widespread and systematic campaign of torture, extrajudicial executions, prolonged arbitrary detention, and indiscriminate killings’ carried out by...the Nigerian military...The Kiobel case rose to the Supreme Court following a...split ruling...which found that...it was not possible to sue corporations...How, many will argue, is it that corporations are simultaneously able to both be, and not be, people?