Justice with a smile!

I had to laugh at today’s news that the Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling that AT&T enjoys (and, by extension, other corporate entities enjoy) the same right to privacy as an individual. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Corporations do not have a right to “personal privacy,” the Supreme Court ruled unanimously, at least when it comes to the Freedom of Information Act and the release of documents held by the government.

. . .

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. took a scalpel to a corporate-rights claim from AT&T Inc. that its “personal privacy” deserves to be protected. The ordinary meaning of “personal” does not refer to an impersonal company, he said.

“We do not usually speak of personal characteristics, personal effects, personal correspondence, personal influence or personal tragedy as referring to corporations or other artificial entities,” he wrote. “In fact, we often use the word ‘personal’ to mean precisely the opposite of business-related: We speak of personal expenses and business expenses, personal life and work life, personal opinion and a company’s view.”

The decision means the Federal Communications Commission may release documents that were compiled during an investigation in 2004 over whether AT&T had overcharged schools and libraries for use of the Internet.

There’s more at the link.

What made me laugh was Chief Justice Roberts’ final summation:

“The protection in FOIA against disclosure of law enforcement information on the ground that it would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy does not extend to corporations. We trust that AT&T will not take it personally.“

Peter