Letter to the Editor: Nike and Free Speech

Today the Mercury News published a letter to the editor from Gary Katz about the upcoming US Supreme Court hearing on a lawsuit filed by Marc Kasky against Nike. The shoe company is appealing a decision by the California Supreme Court in Kasky’s favor. The suit, filed as a class action on behalf of all Californians claims that consumers were being duped by Nike’s defense of its overseas business practices and proclamations of a squeaky clean corporate image.

Katz is the president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. His letter argues that the First Amendment precludes such restirctions on corporate speech and a SCOTUS decision that holds otherwise would have terrible consequences. I can see how the consequences would be terrible for Katz and his colleagues, but not for Americans at large or even for corporations in general.

I wrote the following letter in response:

I’m glad I’d put my coffee cup down by the time I read Gary Katz’ letter in today’s paper, but why would one expect less than such a self-serving response from someone paid to spin the truth? Free speech is an extremely important aspect of American society but for a corporation to be able to lie in official communications (and not, say, exaggerate as is done every day in advertising) is just absurd. If Nike can lie about the reality faced by the workers in its plants, why couldn’t the company also lie in SEC filings?

Katz asserts, with no supporting arguments, that compelling honesty in corporate speech would exclude businesses from public comment and debate but I do not see how this is true. All it does is require such words to be truthful, but, and this is the crux of the problem for Nike et al, the truth might cost them money.

In the wake of the disclosure of the last few years of terrible choices by American corporations, I am hard-pressed to understand how this is a bad thing. Free speech is valuable because of how it benefits society as a whole, not just how it benefits an individual, and there is no value to society in allowing corporations to lie about themselves. The US Supreme Court should uphold the state Supreme Court’s ruling.