Sky Blog
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, along with the SpeechNow.org v. FEC court decision, reshaped the landscape of political contributions. By striking down limits on independent expenditures, these rulings opened the door to a new, opaque channel …
Does the rise of artificially intelligent corporations threaten the integrity and legitimacy of democracy? This question looms large as the 2024 presidential election approaches. A growing number of academics, business leaders, and politicians warn that unchecked development and dissemination of …
ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (“AI”) generally might enhance our lives in many ways, but some people fear significant, pernicious outcomes as well. For instance, in a recent poll of 1,000 U.S. business leaders, almost half said their companies had already …
The days when activists focused on fights over social issues while businesses concentrated on the pursuit of commercial profit are gone. Through pronouncements, boycotts, sponsorships, lobbying, investments, and divestment, businesses and their executives are at the forefront of some of …
In Adolf Berle’s famous 1954 essay, “Corporate Capitalism and The City of God,” certain passages that once seemed musty and redolent of a bygone era are now eerily timely. Like current critics, Berle chides corporate leaders who think they …
Considerable controversy has surrounded the Supreme Court’s sharply divided decisions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Critics argue that giving business corporations unwarranted constitutional protections entrenches corporate power at the expense of democracy by putting legal fictions on the …
Controversy surrounding the role of corporations in public life has not abated in the six years since the Justices decided, in Citizens United v. FEC,[1] that corporations have political-speech rights secured by the First Amendment. If anything, the …
Corporate personhood is getting a bad name.
After Citizens United v Federal Election Decision in 2010, protecting the First Amendment rights of corporations to spend money in elections, the nation has seen the development of a broad-gauged movement to overturn …
The New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, created a stir this month by opening an investigation of Exxon Mobil Corp. pursuant to the Martin Act (New York’s “Blue Sky” Statute).[1] Various Congressmen, Senators and environmental groups also asked …
For a generation, the ideological lines within corporate law have been fairly well defined. On the one side, progressives have argued for a weakening of the shareholder primacy norm as a normative matter or that it does not exist as …
The Supreme Court’s protection of corporate political expenditures in Citizens United v. FEC and corporate religious exercise in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby has rekindled perennial fears about the influence of corporations in U.S. politics and policy. One popular response has …
The role of money and business interests in politics continues to stir controversy. As the nation begins another presidential cycle that is expected to break spending records, we will likely hear analysts argue that the Supreme Court’s decision five years …
The question of corporate rights has garnered much attention in academic as well as lay circles since the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United v. FEC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.[1] Yet the status of incorporated …
A committee of law professors that I co-chair with Lucian Bebchuk has petitioned the SEC to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose the use of shareholder money on politics. The petition has received unprecedented support, including comments from more …
Since 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed corporate political spending in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, shareholder advocates have been warning of the dire consequences of secret campaign contributions and demanding that corporations reveal their political spending. …