MemeMachineGo!

Corporations are considered persons under the law. A person's first amendment right to free speech guarantees, among other things, the right to lie. Nike is bringing these two statements to their syllogistic conclusion, claiming a corporation's constitutional right to lie.

While Nike was conducting a huge and expensive PR blitz to tell people that it had cleaned up its subcontractors' sweatshop labor practices, an alert consumer advocate and activist in California named Marc Kasky caught them in what he alleges are a number of specific deceptions. Citing a California law that forbids corporations from intentionally deceiving people in their commercial statements, Kasky sued the multi-billion-dollar corporation.

Instead of refuting Kasky's charge by proving in court that they didn't lie, however, Nike instead chose to argue that corporations should enjoy the same "free speech" right to deceive that individual human citizens have in their personal lives. If people have the constitutionally protected right to say, "The check is in the mail," or, "That looks great on you," then, Nike's reasoning goes, a corporation should have the same right to say whatever they want in their corporate PR campaigns.

I do think there are some inconsistencies in corporations' status as legal persons, mind you. For instance, I'm all for lawbreaking corporations being sentenced to prison and even, where appropriate, given the death sentence.