Wireless Industry Using First Amendment as a Cudgel in Its Battle Against Safety Warnings

This article by Lynne Peeples appeared in FairWarning, July 11th, 2018.

A brief commentary by Community Rights US Director and Founder Paul Cienfuegos: It’s so rare, and also so helpful, for news stories about corporate abuse of power to explicitly explain to their readers that corporations are winning yet another round in yet another battle mainly because corporations have been granted many constitutional so-called “rights” by the Supreme Court, going all the way back to 1819. This article is that rare exception. In fact, the author puts it right there in the article’s title – the wireless industry’s trade association is exercising its constitutional “rights” over the health concerns of We the People. In the article, Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig gets it almost right when he says the case is not only about cellphone safety but “the way the First Amendment has become a tool of corporations to stop regulation”. In fact, corporate leaders do more than stop regulations. They also stop any actions by state and local elected officials that would prohibit harmful corporate activities. In this particular story, corporate leaders are exercising their business’ First Amendment right to NOT speak (re warning signs in stores), their right TO speak (running disinformation campaigns to confuse the public), and their intangible property “right” to make significantdecisions for the public. As long as The People ignore the source of corporate power, we will continue to lose these single-issue battles. Once We start paying deeper attention, we’ll begin to knock down this corporate “rights” house of cards.