Corporate Personhood Quotes
The state of Texas had an enthusiasm for executions that was greater than and different from all the other states. Their execution numbers were closer to Iran and China than they were to other American states. The Supreme Court had ruled that corporations were people for purposes of being entitled to freedom of speech.
Romney was trying to explain that the Supreme Court had recently ruled that for purposes of placing limits on campaign donations, corporations were entitled to the same rights of free speech and contributing money as people. The candidate chose this statement to express that view. However, the way Romney phrased it made many people suspect that perhaps, because of his lifetime corporate activity, he really thought that there were no differences between corporations and people. This suspicion reinforced a public feeling that Romney was much more corporately oriented than he was people oriented, and that hurt Romney with many voters.
In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled that Corporations were people in the sense that the corporations had the right of freedom of speech in general and all political speech in particular and spending money on campaigns was a form of speech. Many thought that the consequences would be terrible for the American political system and urged legislation and/or a Constitutional Amendment. They particularly attacked the notion that a corporation was a person as this quotation illustrates.
McCain held this view despite the fact that most other politicians of his party supported removal of any corporate restraints.
