One of the bones I’ve had with the claim that corporations are not people, is that corporations are aggregations of people, 👥👱👲👸👷👮who produce a product. 🚀🚁🚜People support those corporations by buying that product. Corporations, as aggregations of those who buy products and those who work there, have valid viewpoints that ought to be heard.💭💬📝✒

Yet, the problem is not that corporations are allowed to speak, 💭it’s that they are allowed to use money to buy advertising on television and radio or mailers sent in the mail.📢📡 Advertising is distinctively different then speech. While anybody can go to a street corner, hold up a sign or shout out their views, 📰📝🎌only wealthy institutions and individuals can afford to spend money advertising their views.💲💰💵

Nobody argues that individuals and institutions don’t have a right to have their voice heard, however the right to have one’s voice heard, does not necessarily include the right to spend money to buy advertising to amplify one’s voice.💰📢 By allowing only the wealthiest of individuals and institutions — the only ones who can afford advertising — unlimited ability to advertise tilts the playing field unfairly.💵💵💵

Any individual, institution, or corporation should have the free ability to express their views. 👮👷👲They should have the right to send out press releases and post whatever they choose on their websites.📧 Government does not have the right to censor the content of those views. 🔇Individuals, institutions, and corporations have the right to speak, but that does not necessarily include advertising to amplify that voice.📡