Do corporations have the ability to raise the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifyin
ID: 1107637 • Letter: D
Question
Do corporations have the ability to raise the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying? Should they? See https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/business/dealbook/treating-corporations-as-people.html?_r=0 Do corporations have the ability to raise the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying? Should they? See https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/business/dealbook/treating-corporations-as-people.html?_r=0 Do corporations have the ability to raise the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying? Should they? See https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/business/dealbook/treating-corporations-as-people.html?_r=0Explanation / Answer
What is Fifth Amendment?
Individuals in the US can protect themselves against incrimination through The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. While corporations may be considered people under the law, for many purposes. Corporations cannot avoid self-incrimination. However, individuals within the corporations, may still have rights to the Fifth Amendment. This way, the corporations can save themselves from all kinds of incrimination.
The Fifth Amendment provides individuals with the ability to refrain themselves from incriminating. It is not mandatory that a person has to commit a crime to plead the Amendment.
A person can instead, rely on this amendment, whenever she is afraid that the testimony can possibly incriminate him or her. For example, if an innocent person is interrogated about her behaviour at a crime-scene, the person has the right to plead the Fifth, in the following two case:
The Fifth Amendment does not refrain people from testifying. Still, the witness needs to take the stand, and plead the Fifth, for each question that may possibly lead to her self-incrimination.
Individuals vs Corporations
Individuals within the incriminated corporation, can plead the Fifth, which is limited to their role as a member of the corporation. For example, if a corporation has been accused of dumping waste illegally, its CEO can plead the Fifth on his own role involved in the dumping. However, the CEO cannot plead about the corporation's policies or about their colleagues or other officers.
In most cases, it is typically the individuals of the corporation, who are charged with the crime, -- and not the corporation itself. This can affect ability of the corporation to protect itself against self-incrimination or revealing its illegal business practices to the world.
An important point to be noted is that The Fifth Amendment cannot be applied to the civil cases. If a corporation has been sued for discrimination (racial, gender, etc), an individual representing that corporation would not have the right to be able to plead the Fifth, to avoid being personally blamed for using racist language.
Only individuals implicated with a civil case, can plead the Fifth, if they think that the testimony might lead them to incriminate themselves in the same case or another potential criminal case. Example: If the husband of an employee was recently murdered, she can plead the Fifth in a civil case, if interrogated about her husband's murder.
Corporate Fifth Amendment
Thus, it can be concluded that the Corporations do not have the rights to Fifth Amendment, which implies that the employees can testify against the corporation. This also implies that the members of the board of directors will not have the right to plead the Fifth, when they are asked questions about the corporation. There may be a case, that if each individual including stockholders, employees and directors, pleads the Fifth, they could help in preventing the corporation from being incriminated. In other words, “If everyone within the organisation has been accused of illegal dumping, and all individuals plead the Fifth, then the corporation can avoid being incriminated, effectively.”
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