Pushing the Personhood Envelope

California activist Jonathan Frieman finally got his day in court in January, but a Marin County judge quickly rejected his argument that he’s entitled to use the state’s carpool lanes accompanied only by a stack of corporate papers in the passenger seat. (In the 2012 Republican primaries, Mitt Romney famously asserted a corporation’s general right under the law to be treated as a “person.”) The judge decided the state legislature’s carpool law was intended to reduce traffic clutter; driving alone with only corporate papers was unrelated to the goal. Frieman told reporters he’d been carrying the papers around for years, hoping to be challenged.