Corporations are not people. I don’t care what the Supreme Court of the United States says on the matter. They are not people. It’s a ridiculous notion, and it is creating some pretty ridiculous arguments as a result.
Today in the United States, the Supreme Court heard arguments involving a chain store called Hobby Lobby and its claim that its religious rights were being trampled on by the requirement in The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, that Hobby Lobby needs to offer health insurance that covers contraception to its employees, if it decides to offer health care at all. It doesn’t have to provide contraception to its employees, just offer a health insurance plan that covers it.
Hobby Lobby claims that that requirement goes against its religious rights because its owners believe that some forms of contraception are actually similar to abortion, which is against their religious beliefs.
So, now everyone seems to think that the decision is whether or not a company can have a religious belief and get an exemption to a law based on that belief. I have seen many people pointing out that such an exemption in this case would lead to exemptions in other cases. Maybe someone doesn’t believe in speed limits; should they get to travel as fast as they want on the roads? People and corporations would start saying that firing LGBTQ employees was okay because their religious beliefs made it so. Those are all very good and valid reasons for the SCOTUS to rule against Hobby Lobby… but it is all missing the point.
The part that never seems to get brought up is the employee’s religious rights. Seriously, if Hobby Lobby can claim its religious freedom is being infringed, what about the employee? This is the damn problem with our society these days. Why is all the focus on the company? The employee is a person and unlike the company, the employee was the one that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was referring to when it was written over a couple centuries ago.
For me it comes down to this, the law must protect the person who is in the less powerful role. The employer, whether a corporation or an individual, is in a position of power over the employee in many ways; dictating their religious choices should not be one. Hobby Lobby has decided to offer health plans to their employees, something that they do not have to do, but which they do for the tax break it gives them. If it hurts their religious morals so much, then they could forego the tax break, but they want the money more than they want to follow their so-called conscience. When they made that decision, that was the end of their choice. At that point the employee’s religious freedom kicks in, part of which is being able to not be bound to your employer’s religious beliefs.
If you think that you get to impose your religious beliefs on other people, then religious freedom is not exactly the concept that you think it is.
