It is thus a mistake, the justice said, to applaud the regulation of corporate speech as “some sort of beatific action.”

Justice Thomas said the First Amendment’s protections applied regardless of how people chose to assemble to participate in the political process.

“If 10 of you got together and decided to speak, just as a group, you’d say you have First Amendment rights to speak and the First Amendment right of association,” he said. “If you all then formed a partnership to speak, you’d say we still have that First Amendment right to speak and of association.”

“But what if you put yourself in a corporate form?” Justice Thomas asked, suggesting that the answer must be the same.

"Justice Thomas Defends Campaign Finance Ruling" The New York Times, 3 Feb, 2010.

But corporations are self-aware, not just assemblies of people! They live in perpetuity and their agents can be held responsible for not properly feeding the beast with profit. Surely that changes the dynamic somewhat?