The political right believes it has a special hold on the Constitution, a dead Constitution. Don't interpret it; don't insert rights (or prohibitions) that aren't there. We are reminded that Justice Scalia told reporters at NPR: “Go back to the good old dead Constitution.”
But then he goes back to the Court and asserts that the Constitution offers citizenship for a special group the Constitution never granted citizenship to.
Last month, before the new Congress opened for business, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and the soon-to-be chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to 150 companies and trade associations asking them to let him know about any federal regulations that they would like to see removed. Perhaps Mr. Issa was emboldened to send such a letter by the business-friendly vibrations emanating from the Supreme Court these days. It was just last January, in the Citizens United case, that the court granted corporations a robust First Amendment right, as citizens, to spend money in support of or against candidates in federal elections.
House Republicans could read the Constitution every day between now and July 4 without finding a word about corporate citizenship. Funny, but it just doesn’t seem to be there. Call it a problem of democracy. ...Linda Greenhouse, NYT
