united-states constitutional-law corporate-law bill-of-rights
Do corporations have any constitutional rights?
<p>An existing <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/a/28316/10458">answer</a> establishes fairly well that corporations in the United States do not have Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.</p>
<p>That leads me to wonder, do corporations in the US have <em>any</em> Constitutional rights at all?</p>
<p>For example, can the US Army lawfully <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-3/" rel="noreferrer">quarter</a> troops at a Holiday Inn somewhere in the USA in peacetime, against the will of the owner, on the basis that the owner is a corporation and thus not eligible for the Third Amendment right against quartering of troops in private homes?</p>
<p>Similarly, could a US court inflict <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-8/" rel="noreferrer">cruel and unusual punishment</a> on a corporation or require it to pay excessive bail or fines on the basis that a corporation doesn't have Eighth Amendment rights?</p>
<p>Similarly, could Congress provide a means to shut down a corporate-owned news broadcaster on the basis that only natural humans have the right to <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/" rel="noreferrer">freedom of the press</a> under the First Amendment?</p>
<p>Similarly, would a <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-4/" rel="noreferrer">warrantless search</a> of a corporate facility be lawful on the basis that the Fourth Amendment only requires police to obtain a search warrant when investigating a natural human?</p>
<p>If corporations have some Constitutional rights but lack others, which rights have they been found to have?</p>
<p>To be clear, I know that corporations actually exercise many of these rights in fact every day. My question, then, is if the possession of these rights by corporations is purely statutory or if their rights actually flow from the Constitution in the same way that the rights of human beings do. For example, suppose Congress passes a law authorizing Federal agents to enter Disney facilities without a warrant, blow up the printing presses used to produce Marvel comics, broadcast religious propaganda on ESPN, construct housing for US Air Force personnel in Space Mountain, arbitrarily and summarily impose the most cruel and unusual penalties you can imagine, require the payment of nearly unimaginably excessive bail and fines, forbid them from submitting a petition for redress of grievances under penalty of catapult, and then sell the entire corporation into slavery without a qualifying conviction. Would that be Constitutional?</p>

<p>In <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/297/233/" rel="noreferrer">Grosjean v. American Press Co</a>., 297 U.S. 233, SCOTUS held that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A corporation is a &quot;person&quot; within the meaning of the due process and
equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/" rel="noreferrer">Citizens United v. FEC</a>, 558 U.S. 310 and numerous preceding cases find that &quot;the First Amendment applies to corporations&quot;. Corporations also enjoy the right to contract (protected by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_Clause" rel="noreferrer">Contract Clause</a>), meaning that the government cannot willy-nilly invalidate a contract because one of the parties is a corporation, see <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/17/518/" rel="noreferrer">Trustees of Dartmouth Coll. v. Woodward</a>, 17 U.S. 518. (But, of course, any government can regulate any contract by process of law). In general, under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/1" rel="noreferrer">1 USC 1</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context
indicates otherwise...the words “person” and “whoever” include
corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies,
and joint stock companies, as well as individuals</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We know that corporations do not have the right to vote. <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2014/04/does-the-second-amendment-protect-firearms-commerce/" rel="noreferrer">Second Amendment corporate rights</a> are district-specific at present:</p>
<p>Seventh Circuit courts view firearms sellers like booksellers — as holders of constitutional rights.  While gun sellers are subject to much stricter regulation than are booksellers, they are both protected by the Bill of Rights.  Conversely, in the courts of the Fourth Circuit, gun sellers have no Second Amendment rights.</p>
<p>Third Amendment rights are unknown. <a href="https://casetext.com/case/engblom-v-carey" rel="noreferrer">Engblom v. Carey</a>, 677 F.2d 957 which is binding only in a few states, is the entirety of 3rd Amendment case law and does not enter the relevant legal territory.</p>
<p>In  <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/251/385/" rel="noreferrer">Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States</a>, 251 U.S. 385, the court held that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Fourth Amendment protects a corporation and its officers from
compulsory production of the corporate books and papers for use in a
criminal proceeding against them when the information upon which the
subpoenas were framed was derived by the Government through a previous
unconstitutional search and seizure, planned and executed by its
officials under color of a void writ, provided the defense of the
Amendment be seasonably interposed, and not first raised as a
collateral issue at the trial of the indictment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The article &quot;A Corporation's Right to a Jury Trial under the Sixth Amendment&quot;, 27 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 375 explores the question of Sixth Amendment rights of corporations esp. the right to trial by jury – the summary is that this has yet to be clearly determined. US v. Troxler Hosiery Co., 681 F.2d 934 finds such a right as does United States v. R. L. Polk and Co., 438 F.2d 377</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A corporation does not have the same right not to incriminate itself
as does a natural person, but it does enjoy the same rights as
individuals to trial by jury.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, corporate trial-by-jury rights are buried deep in questions about the &quot;seriousness&quot; of the prosecution. <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/422/454/" rel="noreferrer">Muniz v. Hoffman</a>, 422 U.S. 454 held that &quot;Petitioners are not entitled to a jury trial under 18 U.S.C. § 3692&quot;, but this is about a specific statute and a question of whether the offense is petty, and the broad constitutional question remains. The right to an attorney seems to be secure, see <a href="https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/olc/garland.htm" rel="noreferrer">this opinion</a> by Merrick Garland, and citations therein.</p>

<p>A corporation's first-amendment right to free speech has been a critical factor in several high-profile cases, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan" rel="noreferrer">New York Times v. Sullivan</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC" rel="noreferrer">Citizens United v. FEC</a>.</p>
<p>Corporations have also been found to enjoy religious freedom, which, for example, allows religious organizations to use religious considerations in deciding whom to hire for certain positions.</p>
<p>Given the difference in application of these rights compared to the right to avoid self incrimination, it is apparent that the applicability of a given constitutional right to corporations (and, if so, <em>how</em> it applies) will vary.</p>
