Sometimes you can use the state’s own creations against it. Let’s say you want to drive in the carpool lane but don’t have a second person in your vehicle, how could you go about do so? Since corporations are legally people under United States law you could bring corporate papers with you:
When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger.
He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.
He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.
Frieman doesn’t actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court — to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine — a minimum of $481.
I think it could be a very interesting court case. On one hand the state has an incentive to rule against Frieman’s claim that a corporation is a person. Creating a corporation isn’t difficult and any ruling stating that a corporation is a person in regards to carpooling would give individuals an incentive to create dummy corporations for the specific purpose of driving in a carpool lane without a second person in the vehicle. On the other hand the state relies on corporation personhood for a great number of benefits including campaign contributions.
It’s always fun to see the state getting caught up in its own mess.