Hobby-Lobby-Supreme-Court-Case

The Dire Implications of the “Hobby Lobby” Case

Lisa Bloom, Rights

For-profit corporations have never had religious rights in America.  Of course, every powerful entity seeks more power and less regulation, and so businesses have attempted to evade the law based on religious objections for many years. Each time, the US Supreme Court has held that corporate America must comply with all laws, period.

The Hobby Lobby Case

With the Hobby Lobby case argued today, that may change. Hobby Lobby objects to a portion of the Affordable Care Act (also called Obamacare) that requires large employers like Hobby Lobby, with its 13,000 employees,  to provide comprehensive health insurance, including coverage for all FDA approved birth control methods. The conservative Christian owners of the arts and crafts retailer object to the inclusion of the morning after pill, the IUD and a few other other post-fertilization birth control methods as abortifacients.

While this might seem like a minimal request in this one case, a ruling for Hobby Lobby could have huge implications which would allow large companies to opt out of potentially thousands of laws. As a result, the US Justice Department argued before the Court that the government could not operate effectively if religious beliefs could be the basis for corporations’ refusing to comply with general laws, such as child labor laws, immunization laws, civil rights or income tax laws. Should pacifists like Quakers and Mennonites get a pass on paying taxes since some of those funds support combat operations? Should a religious hospital be permitted to bar a same sex spouse from her partner’s room? May a conservative business owner deny spousal health benefits to an interracial couple?

Does Hobby Lobby Have Religious Rights?

The answer has always been no, because while individuals and religious institutions like churches are entitled to religious freedom, corporations are not. But this time, the outcome might be different. The high court may indeed find that a large company like Hobby Lobby has religious rights. What has changed is the Court’s monumental decision in Citizens United, which held in 2010 that corporations are people with free speech rights, striking down campaign finance reforms and allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to gush into political races with little regulation. A ruling for Hobby Lobby may enlarge the scope of that ruling to find that Hobby Lobby is a “person” with the constitutional right to religious liberty.

If it did, corporate “people” would have more rights than female people, who could then be denied comprehensive coverage for birth control.

The court’s decision is expected by June.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Avvo.