Senator Bernie Sanders (which should tell you something right there) and a handful of almost equally far left House members are pushing a constitutional amendment that would strip corporations of their rights under the US Constitution:
Section 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.
Section 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.
Doug Mataconis pays the proponents of the amendment the unwarranted compliment of taking the proposal seriously enough to offer a useful critique of the merits, including some of my writing on corporate personhood.
Eugene Volokh points out that the amendment would "Strip Pro-Business (But Not Anti-Business) Non-Profits of First Amendment Rights," making it a two-fer for Sanders and the rest of the socialist left. Volokh also argues that despite the amendment's fig leaf reference to freedom of the press, the amendment in fact would "Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Ban Editorials About Candidates or Ballot Measures by Nearly All Newspapers." Oddly, however, <SARCASM>he says that as though it's a bad thing</SARCASM>.
