Chain of Command revisited

We don't actually know the specifics of Data's backstory from the point of being discovered to joining Starfleet. Data may be programmed to think he "chose" to join Starfleet Academy, but really it was just a machine copying what it was familiar with... Starfleet found him, the computer imprinted on Starfleet.

He "agreed" to the same stipulations, but would not be bound by them as he is not a person, and has no rights, also due to not being a person. An object has no rights. Your replicator has no right to refuse your request and decide to no longer be a replicator. Data is just a fancy, mobile computer core that was programmed to mimic the behaviors of a person.
This sort of views it from the perspective of focusing on Data alone, but what I'm focusing on is the other end of the dynamic, entrance into Starfleet. This is an act not undertaken by objects, enrollment, enlistment, undertaking a place in the academy, that very likely eliminated another candidate from entrance, bestowing of ranks and posts, that others could hold instead

I don't know much about law, but it's kind of like the Miracle on 34th St. loophole. (which I realize is also fictional law) Because the state recognized him as Santa Claus, the state is already recognizing him as such & therefore he is such, ipso facto. (If I'm using that right lol)

They've already granted Data the recognition of a being & not an object, by placing him among their ranks as if he were any other being.
 
This sort of views it from the perspective of focusing on Data alone, but what I'm focusing on is the other end of the dynamic, entrance into Starfleet. This is an act not undertaken by objects, enrollment, enlistment, undertaking a place in the academy, that very likely eliminated another candidate from entrance, bestowing of ranks and posts, that others could hold instead

They've already granted Data the recognition of a being & not an object, by placing him among their ranks as if he were any other being.

That's a fair point, but I can see several arguments. The idea of an object doing... anything of its "own" accord is an inherently alien concept. Nobody is doubting that Data is an amazingly complex computer capable of independent operation, only if he's a "person".

I don't necessarily think that Starfleet letting an android join Starfleet inherently means that Starfleet (or, perhaps rather, The Federation) considers it a person. I think that most people would consider him a person... as Maddox brings up in the episode, mostly due to his appearance. If Data looked like R2-D2, he probably does not get the same consideration.

By and large I think Starfleet/Federation didn't really know WHAT to do with Data, and in keeping with them generally being on the progressive side, just kind of... let the android do what it wanted. It was independent enough that there was no reason to confine it, or deactivate it or anything.

On a somewhat more sinister side, I also don't doubt there were some treating Data's admission into the Academy as something of a science experiment itself. They wanted to see the android could do, how far it could go. Data got as far as he did because most people in the Federation just accepted him.

On a related note to this, I find it interesting the episode never broached the topic of Federation citizenship. We know that the Federation does have "citizens" with certain rights and privileges, but at no point does this ever come up with Data... which to me suggests he was never given Federation citizenship. Not being a citizen obviously doesn't make one a non-person, but it is something to consider that while Starfleet may have been cool with Data going through the Academy, the Federation proper never considered him a person to attain citizenship.
 
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