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Supreme Court rules against Nike for labor issue P.R. spin doctoring.
by Chris Holm
Saturday, Jun. 28, 2003 at 9:09 PM
chris@indypgh.org (email address validated)
Supreme Court votes against overturning California S.C. ruling last year against Nike for labor issue P.R. spin doctoring.
Nike attempted to better it�s image and ran ads in 1997 stating findings from an inspection of Asian factories found no mistreatment or underpayment of employees.
Two lower California courts ruled against those apposing Nike on the grounds of the first amendment rights of Nike to respond to it�s critics.
�But in May, 2002, four out of the seven California supreme court justices disagreed. When a corporation makes �factual representations about its own products or its operations, it must speak truthfully,� wrote Justice Joyce Kennard for the majority.�
"Speech is commercial in its content if it is likely to influence consumers in their commercial decisions," she wrote. "For a significant segment of the buying public, labor practices do matter in making consumer choices."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0627-04.htm
Nike then took the case to the U.S. Supreme court, where it upheld the California ruling and dismissed Nike�s case.
Not only is this a victory for globalization activists, but it brings unprecedented Supreme Court decisions regarding corporate free speech, which technically isn�t guaranteed constitutionally vs. public free speech which is, but it also promotes accountability in corporate ethics nationally which may make institutions think twice before using misleading or false positive promotion to better it�s image.
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