The answer is Chief Justice Rehnquist, who was actually far more skeptical of giving constitutional rights to corporations than liberals like Justice Brennan and Marshall.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nathan Newman
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 6:31 PM
Subject: [lbo-talk] Which Supreme Court Justice Said This?
This was a dissent in a case which strengthened the free speech rights of corporations against consumers. Guess who said it? (If you know, hold off for a few hours):
"Extension of the individual freedom of conscience decisions to business corporations strains the rationale of those cases beyond the breaking point. To ascribe to such artificial entities an "intellect" or "mind" for freedom of conscience purposes is to confuse metaphor with reality. Corporations generally have not played the historic role of newspapers as conveyers of individual ideas and opinion...
...Because the interest on which the constitutional protection of corporate speech rests is the societal interest in receiving information and ideas, the constitutional interest of a corporation in not permitting the presentation of other distinct views clearly identified as those of the speaker is de minimis. This is especially true in the case of...a regulated public utility. Any claim it may have had to a sphere of corporate autonomy was largely surrendered to extensive regulatory authority when it was granted legal monopoly status."
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