Supreme Court Will Hear Kasky vs Nike On Corporate PR [1]
Submitted by Laura Miller [2] on
The US Supreme Court will rule in Nike vs. Kasky [3] whether Nike's statements on the working conditions in its Asian factories are commercial speech and subject to truth-in-advertising laws. Nike appealed a May 2002 California Supreme Court decision that says when a corporation makes "factual representations about its own products or its own operations, it must speak truthfully." Nike says that the First Amendment protects its statements. Thirty-two media companies and organizations -- including the New York Times [4], the Washington Post [5], the Tribune Company, the Hearst Corporation, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and the National Association of Broadcasters -- have filed a brief on behalf of Nike [6]. They argue that reporters would not be able to get company executives to talk freely about their industry because of a fear of lawsuits if a company is believed to be lying and that this would squelch free and open public debate. Activists at organizations like ReclaimDemocracy.org [7], however, see this defense as a red herring. They characterize the case as a question of corporate personhood [8] and argue that corporations do not have a Constitutional right to free speech. Nike has assembled an "all-star legal team" [9] to argue its case.