Category: Corporate Abuse of Power

Here’s an illustration of how the fabricated claim that corporations have constitutional rights, which was at the core of the Citizens United decision, really hits home. The tobacco industry recently won a court ruling that graphic warnings on cigarette packages violate the cigarette manufacturing corporations’ "free speech" rights.
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For the past year and a half, we’ve been calling for Massey Energy to lose its corporate charter for its criminal responsibility in the deaths of 29 coal miners when its Upper Big Branch mine in West Vriginia exploded in 2010. The company has paid fines admitting criminal liability in their deaths.

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In America, we have the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) to ensure that the food we buy is safe to eat, and that drugs do for our health what their makers say they do.

A U.S. Court recently tossed much of that premise out the window, saying pharmaceutical companies and their employees can not be prevented from making claims about health effects that are un-verified by the F.D.A. In effect, the decision gives drug makers the green light to make up any claim they please, to make the sale.

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For the past 18 months, Free Speech For People has called on Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden to revoke Massey’s corporate charter due to the corporation’s acknowledged criminal guilt in the tragic deaths of 29 coal miners at its Upper Big Branch mine.

Now, according to the New York Times:

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Original post appeared on Corporations Are Not People

By Jeff Clements

May 16, 2012

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Montana Governor Brian Scweitzer (D) and his Lieutenant Governor, John Bohlinger (R) on Thursday became the first two Montanans to sign the petition to put a question calling for a US consitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United on the state’s ballot this November.

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"A second tool to discipline corporate wrongdoers is charter revocation…. State governments have the right to revoke charters from companies that do not serve the public interest. Free Speech for People has petitioned Delaware to revoke the charter of Massey Energy. Charter revocation effectively constitutes the death penalty for a corporation. Even occasional use against large corporations would be a major deterrent to corporate wrongdoing."

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AlterNet

Steven Rosenfeld

December 12, 2011

Some pro-business federal judges have shockingly approved a constitutional right for big companies to avoid revealing product dangers on labels.

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Yesterday, the parent company of Massey Energy agreed to pay $209 million in criminal penalties, civil penalties, and compensation to the families of the 29 miners who were killed when its Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia exploded on April 5, 2010.  The company was also fined an additional $10.8 million yesterday by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration — the largest fine in that agency’s history.

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