Jim Hightower

The Supreme Court has decreed that a corporation is a "person," but apparently the justices never met Mr. Wal-Mart. If they had, they'd have to admit that there's nothing at all human about this bloodless, heartless, and brainless money-grubbing machine.

Members of the Court should get to know Joseph Casias, a 29-year-old former employee of a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan. Hard-working, loyal, and diligent, Casias was an excellent employee during his five years with the retail behemoth, even earning "Associate Of The Year" honors at his store in 2008. "I gave them everything," he says. "One-hundred-ten percent every day. Anything they asked me to do I did. More than they asked me to do. Twelve to 14 hours a day."

However, Wal-Mart-the-Person abruptly fired Casias last November for testing positive for marijuana during a routine drug test. Did the guy have a reason? I'll say – Casias has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor! Yet he's been able to do his work every day by using doctor-prescribed marijuana doses to control his pain – a prescription that is perfectly legal under Michigan's medical marijuana law. He never came to work under the influence, and certainly never took the medicine on the job.

He showed his state medical marijuana permit to the Wal-Mart cogs, but instead of common sense, they only had cold corporate policy to guide them. As a PR flack later put it, "We believe our [termination] policy complies with the law and we support decisions based on the policy."

To add more injury to the injury already inflected on Casias, Wal-Mart even tried to cut off his unemployment benefits. "It's not fair," Casias says simply.

It's worse than not fair – it's inhuman. Tell that to Mr. Wall-Mart. Reach "him" at 1-800-963-8442.