The rule announced today — that Congress must treat corporations exactly like human speakers in the political realm — represents a radical change in the law. The court’s decision is at war with the views of generations of Americans….The majority blazes through our precedents, overruling or disavowing a body of case law…While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

–Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which abruptly brought an end to McCain-Feingold and changed the scene of corporate involvement in the advancement of political candidates. The majority opinion hinged on the conceit that corporations are people too, and they deserve the full protection of the Constitution and First Amendment.

A corporation, after all, is not endowed by its creator with inalienable rights

–Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg