SO it is resolved that Glenn Greenwald supports corporate rights and opposes civil rights for people. Glenn strongly supports corporate personhood and money=speech, but Glenn slyly opposes abortion rights by dancing around the issue:
CORPORATE RIGHTS AND POWERS. Glenn Greenwald supports judicial protection of constitutional rights for corporations and billionaires. For example, Glenn is outspoken defending the 5-4 partisan Supreme Court case Citizens United from 2010 that guarantees unlimited power for corporations (and to billionaires by direct extension) to spend money as ‘free’ speech. All five Republicans on the Court agreed with Glenn, all four Democrats disagreed. Glenn goes with Republicans.
Despite his support of money=speech, Glenn Greenwald likes to complain when money is spent on things other than Republican causes. For example, Glenn complains that billionaire Pierre Omidyar who funded Glenn for many years now funds campaigns against disinformation.
Republicans and Glenn Greenwald support corporate personhood and money=speech for one simple reason: They know that wealthy people are likely to support the corporate agenda of the Republican Party. This means there will always be more money for Republican causes than for those who dare want things like business regulation or fair tax rates. As Glenn complains about “liberal cash” spent by one person or another, Glenn misses the big picture:
Oddly enough, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) officially agrees with Glenn about the Citizens United case: money=speech even though the plain language of the Free Speech Clause of the Constitution protects the press, not the corporation. Five Republicans did not suddenly wake up in 2010 to discover that corporations and billionaires were enthroned with unlimited money=speech rights despite earlier rulings to the contrary. Both Glenn Greenwald and ACLU are wrong.
It appears that Glenn Greenwald is more wrong about the First Amendment than ACLU. At least ACLU spoke against the 5-4 partisan ruling that profit corporations can block women workers from contraception access (Hobby Lobby) and against the 5-4 partisan ruling that public access cable channels have the absolute Constitutional right to censor the public (Halleck). We can’t find any Glenn Greenwald writing on these other ‘free speech’ cases to date.
On one hand, Glenn Greenwald complains frequently against social media censorship. On the other hand, Glenn remains silent about the new originalism by Republicans on the Supreme Court to enthrone corporations with absolute censorship power. So which Glenn is the real Glenn… The one who opposes censorship all day long or the one who fails to address the Supreme Court ruling in Halleck that guarantees a corporate right to censor even where the corporation is literally a public access cable channel?
The answer to that question has already been revealed by Glenn Greenwald’s rhetorical games:
- Glenn complains that Democrats take corporate money even while Glenn supports unlimited money=speech for Republicans–applying blame to the party opposing the ruling. Glenn is a straight up hypocrite here.
- Glenn complains that social media censors Republicans even though Republicans elevated corporate censorship to Constitutional right in the Halleck case–while Glenn remains silent on the ruling likely because Glenn supports such censorship as an unalienable right here.
- Glenn supports the analysis of Republicans in the Supreme Court Dobbs case that took away abortion rights–while Glenn refuses to take a direct stand on abortion rights. But turns out that Glenn opposes abortion rights in all cases…
Which brings us to Glenn Greenwald on civil rights and abortion:
CIVIL RIGHTS AND ABORTION. Glenn Greenwald opposes judicial protection of civil rights for humans. For example, Glenn always opposed Roe v. Wade and abortion rights: “Roe denied, not upheld, the rights of citizens to decide democratically.” Earth to Glenn: Constitutional civil rights are an exception to democracy. In the 2022 Dobbs case that overturned abortion rights, a majority of five Republicans ended abortion rights, one Republican merely wanted to cut abortion rights back to the bone, and three Democrats wanted to keep abortion rights. Glenn goes with Republicans.
To justify ending civil rights, Glenn declares that the Supreme Court always fails to consider the “only one question: whether the law in question violates a right guaranteed by the Constitution.” Throughout hundreds of lengthy opinions, the Court considers exactly how the Constitution protects or does not protect certain perceived rights. In one sentence, Glenn dismisses all of that history.
In 2022 after the Dobbs ruling came down, Glenn Greenwald spent much time complaining that Democrats would not simply pass a national abortion rights law:
Glenn also complained that “51 Senators — a majority — voted NO on the [abortion rights] bill.” Fifty of those were Republicans, but Glenn focused on the one Democrat, Joe Manchin from the very ‘red’ state West Virginia.
- Basic fact 1: There have always been a few conservative Democrats who refused to support progress. Democrats made the most progress when they held substantially more than majorities.
- Basic fact 2: Joe Manchin as the fiftieth Democrat cast the deciding vote many times to turn some of the Democratic agenda into law helping to make the 50-50 Senate highly productive with the slimmest of majority.
In summary, Glenn Greenwald supports the Republican opinion ending abortion on principle and opposes Democrats for not passing an abortion rights bill, refusing to take a stand against Republican opposition to abortion itself. Which begs the obvious question:
What does Glenn really think about the right to abortion? Is Glenn just in it for a general principle that happens to end the right or does Glenn oppose abortion in all cases? Meet Doug69, Glenn Greenwald’s username on some very old message boards recently discovered and posted at Master Notions:
Abortions cause babies pain
Not that any of your pro-abortionists care – since, after all, NOTHING is more important than the right of women to slaughter their own babies, since without THAT, we have fascism – but science has now rather conclusively established that fetuses feel pain even as early as 20 weeks from Partial Birth Abortions. But it’s ok – they’re just clumps of cells…
If you have your way, women are free to slaughter their babies. You can say that you’re not in favor of them slaughtering their babies, but rather, you’re only in favor of them having the choice to do so. But that’s just semantics. In your world, women are free to slaughter their babies…
There is absolutely no more justification for murdering a baby if it’s conceived due to rape or incest as there is in any other case.
Try asking Glenn Greenwald what he really thinks about abortion itself. See if you can get a straight answer.
BOTTOM LINE on Constitutional rights: according to Glenn Greenwald, the Bill of Rights protects corporations and money, it does not protect humans and abortion.
(Featured picture from this video where Glenn Greenwald supported the prosecution of Lula D’Silva before Glenn opposed it.)