If corporations are going to be “persons” shouldn’t they be subject to the same civil justice rules?
As Lina Kahn writes in The Washington Monthly, when one must actually face its accusers in court, in front of a jury of peers, and subject to an open and public trial, justice under our system gets done. Our constitutionally-based system of civil jurisprudence is not perfect, but its probably the best in the world. We are not allowed to opt out. But corporations can with language in their service contracts, licenses to enter their stores, owners manuals and the like.
Corporations argue (and convinced the Supreme Court in Citizens United – 130 S. Ct. 876) that they are people. Well, you and I cannot immunize ourselves from suit and require that any claims against us be made via private arbitration. But that is what corporations do.
Should they be entitled to have it both ways? What do you think?