San Rafael Man uses Corporate Persons for Carpool Lane!

[Barry]

I love it! - Barry


California man says he can drive in carpool lane with corporation papers https://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/05/16372432-california-man-says-he-can-drive-in-carpool-lane-with-corporation-papers
By Isolde Raftery, NBC News

When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger.

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.

Frieman doesn't actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court -- to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine -- a minimum of $481.

Frieman has been frustrated with corporate personhood since before it became a hot button issue in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate and union spending may not be restricted by the government under the First Amendment.

At the heart of the high court ruling was the argument that corporations -- because they are composed of individuals – deserve protection under the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech.

Frieman, who faces a traffic court on Monday, plans to tell the judge that this isn’t about carpool lanes; it’s about corporate power.

"I'm just arresting their power and using it for my service to drive in the carpool lane," he told NBC Bay Area's Jean Elle.

University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot says Frieman’s argument may not hold up because it steers too far from the intent of carpool lane laws.

"A court might say, ‘Well, it says person, and a corporation is a person, so that'll work for the carpool lane,’” Talbot told NBCBayArea.com. “It’s possible, but I doubt it.”

In an opinion piece posted to the San Rafael Patch site on May 14, 2011, Frieman broke down his argument.
A carpool lane is two or more persons per vehicle, he said. The definition of person in California’s Vehicle Code is “natural person or corporation.”

“Just imagine what THAT courtroom scene’ll be like,” he wrote.

He imagined what he might say to the judge: “Your honor, according to the vehicle code definition and legal sources, I did have a ‘person’ in my car. But Officer so-and-so believes I did NOT have another person in my car. If you rule in his favor, you are saying that corporations are not persons. I hope you do rule in his favor. I hope you do overturn 125 years of settled law.”

But before he can make grand proclamations, the officer who ticketed him must show up to court. Otherwise, his ticket may be thrown out.

[handy]

I love it! - Barry

YES!!! Hilarious! Worth watching. We need more of this kind of event. Tie up the bureaucracy with its own idiocy. And PUBLICIZE it! Repeatedly! Love it!

[Barry]

Corporation not person in carpool lanes
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...es-4173366.php


Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael uses his case to highlight rulings that corporations can be considered people.
Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle / SF

Some people will do anything to get out of a traffic ticket.

It is the rare motorist, however, who hopes his explanation will overturn more than 100 years of Supreme Court rulings and challenge the legal notion of corporate personhood.

Jonathan Frieman, a 56-year-old San Rafael resident and self-described social entrepreneur, failed to convince a Marin County Superior Court jurist Monday after he argued that he was not alone when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over in October while driving in the carpool lane.

Instead, Frieman admitted that he had reached onto the passenger's seat and handed the officer papers of incorporation connected to his family's charity foundation.

By Frieman's estimation, if corporations are indeed persons as was first established in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., and he offered evidence that a corporation was traveling inside his vehicle - riding shotgun, of course - then two people were in his car.

"The question of personhood is a very poignant one," Frieman said before he entered the courtroom. "This is designed to bring a very strong point to bear upon the legal system. Corporations have grown into large, huge, fictional entities. Now I am taking their power and using it in order to drive in the carpool."

Citizens United case

The issue of corporate personhood rocketed to public consciousness in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case that the First Amendment barred the government from limiting companies' independent political expenditures. But Frieman says he's been driving stretches of carpool lanes along Highway 101 for the past decade with his papers in the front seat, waiting to get pulled over and set his legal battle in motion.

He noted, though, he had not buckled in the corporation papers.

"Would you buckle up your imaginary friend?" he asked. "That's what corporations are - they're not real, but they've been getting all this power."

Pointing to state law

Ford Greene, Frieman's attorney, pointed to California vehicle code section 470, which says the definition of a person includes "natural persons and corporations." The signs on the freeways ask carpoolers to carry "2 or more persons" which, Greene said, "is constitutionally vague."

Inside the courtroom, Greene questioned CHP Officer Troy Dorn, who ticketed Frieman on Highway 101 near Highway 37 and did not appear to share the same amusement Frieman's supporters had for the proceedings.

Before the hearing began, a television reporter called out to Dorn as he sat at the plaintiff's table: "Don't forget to smile!" The officer, dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and boots, smirked and appeared to chew at his bottom lip.

At the jurist's prompting, Dorn explained the October encounter with little enthusiasm.

"After I explained the reason I was citing him, he explained to me that he was exempt because he was in essence a corporation," Dorn testified. "I explained to him I was not sure about his standing as a corporation but he could explain it later in a Marin County court."

In his closing argument, Greene asked the court, "What's a person? Is a person a natural person? Is it a corporation? Or, is a person both?"

Jurist Frank Drago, a traffic referee, admired the unusual argument.

"I must say it's a novel one," Drago said. "But I look at it a little differently."

'I expected to lose'

Drago directed Greene and Frieman to the vehicle code's subsection, which addresses the intent of the carpool lane - to relive traffic congestion.

"Common sense says carrying a sheath of papers in the front seat does not relieve traffic congestion," Drago said. "And so I'm finding you guilty."

Outside the courtroom, Frieman said he would appeal the ruling within 30 days.

"I expected to lose," Frieman said. "And I expected the judge to cite the reasons he did."

Justin Berton is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @justinberton

[Tinkerbell]

A colleage of Jonathan Frieman, David Cobb, who is one of the national directors of "Corporations are Not People," will be speaking on this subject at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Rosa, 547 Mondocino Ave, Santa Rosa on Sunday, January 13 at 12:30. His talk is free, and all are invited. He is an excellent speaker.

[Peace Voyager]

Hats off to this gutsy guy!

A colleage of Jonathan Frieman, David Cobb, who is one of the national directors of "Corporations are Not People," will be speaking on this subject at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Rosa, 547 Mondocino Ave, Santa Rosa on Sunday, January 13 at 12:30. His talk is free, and all are invited. He is an excellent speaker.