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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSupreme Court Starts Giving Corporations Religious Rights, Too
Supreme Court Starts Giving Corporations Religious Rights, Too
You already knew that the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have First Amendment rights. Now the courts are working on giving them religion, too.
"Can a corporation exercise religion?" federal district court judge John L. Kane recently asked. He answered his own question with a provisional yes. In Newland v Sebelius, the court granted a commercial enterprise a temporary injunction exempting it, for now, from providing female employees with coverage for contraception and sterilization required by the Affordable Care Act.
The churches are already full of abstract entities with no material existence celebrated at the altar, so hey, lets start packing the pews with them, too. In these years of declining attendance, the churches will probably welcome well-heeled worshippers, especially since letting them in also grants the churches lots of privileges.
But look where this is leading the rest of us.
Now, according to Judge Kanes decision in Newland, secular businesses may enjoy similar status and similar immunity under federal statutes, at least, if not the Constitution. His ruling is an initial salvo in what may well be prolonged litigation, but it represents an ominous legal trend: Religious freedom is morphing into religious power. If the rights of diverse employees in a secular enterprise are subject to the beliefs of their employers, then religious people will not simply be laws unto themselves; theyll determine, in part, laws governing the rest of us.
Religious employers are the worst employers. Now the American courts want to give them even more power to meddle in their employees lives a power completely contrary to any of the principles of liberty on which this country was supposedly founded.
Pharyngula / By PZ Myers
Posted at August 16, 2012, 7:47am
http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/supreme-court-starts-giving-corporations-religious-rights-too
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Supreme Court Starts Giving Corporations Religious Rights, Too (Original Post)
marmar
Aug 2012
OP
See the 7 mountains. Before long this country will be a theocracy. It is happening and people
southernyankeebelle
Aug 2012
#2
ananda
(28,876 posts)1. Our courts are SO compromised.
It hurts.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)2. See the 7 mountains. Before long this country will be a theocracy. It is happening and people
are letting it happen.
sinkingfeeling
(51,473 posts)3. The crazies have taken over the entire country.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)4. It isn't about them being forced to use contraception, it is about them forcing their religion
upon their employees...If they don't want to use contraception, no one is going to force them to, however as a business that hires employees they must meet federal law and not force their employees into some obscure religios practice...This particular judge is wrong imo.
LondonReign2
(5,213 posts)5. That's great news!
Because you see, my religion doesn't believe in paying any taxes, so now my business is free to ignore that Federal law. Hooray!
I like this, since I am now free to ignore any law I wish to.