Treating corporations as people is not just a misinterpretation or misapplication of The Constitution, of laws, but actually demonic, an example of mental and moral degeneracy so profound that it negates the very idea of a humane society. It’s the flip side of treating some individuals as less than people — which the Supreme Court also did once, in the Dred Scott decision.
Treating corporations as people is a form of pagan idolatry that would have astounded and horrified even the commercial-minded Protestants who founded this country.
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Overreacting?
And let’s not panic. Some people seem to be laboring under the misimpression that the Supreme Court has suddenly decided that a corporation is “people.” I have not read the decision and do not want to, but I am prepared to assume that the court has simply repeated the very-old principle of law that a corporation is a “person.” That’s good: it means that an individual can sue a corporation. You want that.
One can sue many entities that are not “persons”, that don’t have the same rights as persons. That very old principle of law of which you speak did not extend back to the founding of the republic, when the people who created this government were so afraid of large accumulations of capital having the power to control the state that all corporations were chartered for narrow, specific purposes and limited amounts of time only, and then forced to disband. The idea that a corporation could have free speech and religious rights would not only have amazed but nauseated The Founders.
Mooby-burger, anyone?