This little note was inspired by "Corporations can't pledge allegiance", Frances Moore Lappe, Huffington Post, 2012-08-16.
The Supreme Court "issued an order upholding prohibitions against foreigners making contributions to influence American elections", "Supreme Court Retains Ban on Foreign Campaign Donations", John H. Cushman Jr., New York Times, 2012-01-09.
This decision was against two individuals who were working temporarily in the United States. Foreign nationals may not make contributions to candidates or parties and may not make independent expenditures in elections.
If corporations are people, then shouldn't this same ruling apply to many large corporations. Corporations also have foreign nationals on their boards. For example, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board of Nestlé, a Swiss corporation, sits on the board of Exxon.
In 2011 Exxon gave $226,700 to candidates and caucuses and its employee/retiree PAC gave more than $747,000. See http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/about_issues_political.aspx. Before "liberals" get too smug, Exxon donated $117,946 to Obama's 2008 campaign and a lesser amount to McCain. I guess they believed in equal bribery, er, covering all the bases. See "Exxon, Chevron, BP Greased Obama's Campaign", Paul Bedard and Danielle Kurtzleben, US News, 2011-03-14.
So, if the Chairman of Nestlé, an Austrian citizen, is on the board of Exxon, wouldn't he have some say in how Exxon makes its political contributions? If so, isn't that a foreigner "making contributions to influence American elections"?
