No, a Corporation is Not a “Person” for Purposes of Driving in the Carpool Lane. (But Nice Try!)
Citizens United has re-ignited debate about the rights and responsibilities of corporate entities. Well, it seems as though a line’s been drawn. Corporations can spend all the campaign cash they want, but even that kind of clout isn’t gonna get them into the carpool lane. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
It is the rare motorist, however, who hopes his explanation will overturn more than 100 years of Supreme Court rulings and challenge the legal notion of corporate personhood.
Jonathan Frieman, a 56-year-old San Rafael resident and self-described social entrepreneur, failed to convince a Marin County Superior Court jurist Monday after he argued that he was not alone when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over in October while driving in the carpool lane.
Instead, Frieman admitted that he had reached onto the passenger’s seat and handed the officer papers of incorporation connected to his family’s charity foundation.
By Frieman’s estimation, if corporations are indeed persons as was first established in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., and he offered evidence that a corporation was traveling inside his vehicle – riding shotgun, of course – then two people were in his car.