Commentary on Friedman and May

Abstract

Friedman and May began their discussion of First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti with question, Should corporations have same first amendment protection as human individuals have? That is also question both Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and minority of U.S. Supreme Court seem to have thought central. It is, however, not question Supreme Court's majority thought central. Indeed, majority expressly described it as the wrong question. (1415) For majority, question was not whether corporations have same first-amendment pro tection as human individuals but (admitting they have less) how much pro tection they have. Such disagreement about question suggests to me that, like many other important legal cases, this one may turn more on how one reads facts than on any abstract theory, even as interesting a theory as that Friedman and May have offered us. So, I shall begin with facts-and, as it turns out, I shall not get much beyond them.