Based on the arguments presented at the Supreme Court today in the Hobby Lobby case, the conservative members of the Supreme Court once more appear ready to hold that corporations have more rights than people. This is not a surprise to anyone who follows the court.
It seems that corporations are people, and a corporation can have a religion. What’s more, their religion is more powerful than your religion, and if you work for them, they can force their religious views on you.
Where is this in the Constitution? Ha ha! Didn’t you read the word “corporation”? That’s all you need to know to determine how Scalia and his pals will vote.
The more liberal members of the Court (the three women especially) questioned how you could determine a corporation’s religion. “How does a corporation exercise religion?” Sotomayor asked. A poll of shareholders? What about shareholders that do not share the same religion as the CEO?
Opponents rightfully pointed out that this could lead to corporations deciding that they could use their religion to justify firing all gays, prohibiting women from working, and otherwise taking away our basic rights.
This has the possibility of rising to the level of “terrible decisions” reached only previously by the Citizen’s United decision which found two fictions to be law: that not only are corporations people, but money is speech — therefore corporations have the right to speech much greater than those of us poor individuals.
Well, it will be the most terrible decision until the Supreme Court tops it with the follow-up case later this year that holds that individual limitations on campaign contributions are also invalid … at which time it may just be easier to allow the billionaires to vote for us.
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