Sanders Files Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision

[Nuclear Unicorn]

85. I think we're half-way there.

Yes, by-law-only entities have rights but those rights only derive from the inherent rights of the persons comprising those "legal fictions."

But the real question then becomes: Why do we have legal fictions?

I believe the answer is: Because we need them (within the system we find ourselves).

Legal fictions exist so people can commit a portion of their material wealth to an endeavor and, if the endeavor proves to have been a poor decision only the portion of the wealth committed -- rather than the sum total of their assets -- shall be at risk. Would you join a group if, as an understanding of your membership within that group, your home/savings/possessions were liable for the actions of that group?

As an analogy of the consequence of such protections I offer Good Samaritan laws, or meaningful lack thereof, as an example. We've all heard stories of people acting to the best of their ability with the best of intentions to mitigate some emergency only to be left in ruins by poorly formed law. Those stories have been all but universally condemned as wrong-headed yet they persist. Moreover, they persist in the collective consciousness of the public and because of that the public is all the more reluctant to offer assistance to their neighbors because they fear having their lives destroyed. Ours is a poorer society because of such episodes.

Your ability to join a group and not personally suffer any more than you personally care to commit is essential in granting you the freedom to express yourself as part of that group. I wholeheartedly endorse granting you those protections because your participation is essential in our building a stronger society.