----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Brown" <cbrown at michiganlegal.org>
Nathan Newman : -Believe me, in the legal work I do on economic regulation, corporate -opponents cite their constiutional rights against violations of equal -protection, free speech, due process and a range of other rights to combat -economic regulation.
>CB: Well, you learn something everyday.
>How do they use equal protection ? What would be a suspect classification
>that a corporation could fall into ? :>0
The corps actually do less well with the equal protection arguments. Those do usually get laughed out of court, although a few judges demand a "rational basis" for the regulations. In Illinois, the state equal protection clause has been used to block some state and local economic legislation.
But the free speech claims on behalf of corporations has become especially pernicious and in an information age, a lot of their activity has free speech implications, so it can allow them to escape a lot of government regulation potentially.
-- Nathan Newman