Exxon Tries To Bury Climate Documents By Claiming First Amendment Rights
The oil giant says attorneys general trying to access their internal docs “discriminates based on viewpoint.”
By Kate Sheppard and Shane Ferro
The Huffington Post
April 19, 2016
Excerpt:
“Exxon’s theory here leads to the completely untenable result that anytime a multinational corporation acts in a way that elected officials, or public opinion, disagrees with — the corporation becomes immune from regulation because any regulation would interfere with its ability to promote ‘its’ opinions, however baseless or profit-motivated,” Daniel Greenwood, a professor of law at Hofstra University, wrote in an email. “That isn’t free speech; it is anarchy.”
“The First Amendment protects free speech — not corporate autonomy to act as corporate management pleases without regard to the views of Americans or their officials,” he continued.
