“In the Hobby Lobby cases, five male Justices of the Supreme Court, who are all members of the Catholic faith and who each were appointed by a President who hailed from the Republican party, decided that a huge corporation, with thousands of employees and gargantuan revenues, was a ‘person’ entitled to assert a religious objection to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate because that corporation was ‘closely held’ by family members. To the average person, the result looks stupid and smells worse.
To most people, the decision looks stupid ’cause corporations are not persons, all the legal mumbo jumbo notwithstanding. The decision looks misogynist because the majority were all men. It looks partisan because all were appointed by a Republican. The decision looks religiously motivated because each member of the majority belongs to the Catholic church, and that religious organization is opposed to contraception.”
Judge Richard George Kopf, a George H.W. Bush appointee to the federal bench
“… equality … ought to be the basis of every law … all men are by nature equally free and independent … Above all are they to be considered as retaining an equal title to the free exercise of Religion according to the dictates of Conscience.” (Does a Corporation have a Conscience? If they do they sure don’t show it by their actions.) “If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, … During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. … What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. … Distant as it may be … from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. The one is the first step, the other the last in the career of intolerance. … What mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be armed with the force of a law? … Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?”
“We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man’s right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.”
James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights
This was posted on March 25, 2014 before the case was decided.
“Should the Hobby Lobby case be decided for the company, then this would make the law of the land exactly what the founders intended to avoid. Government would now become the arbiter of religion. Government would decide what is a sincere religious belief and what is not a sincere religious belief. Government would decide which religious beliefs merit exemptions from the law and which religious beliefs do not merit exemption from the law on a sliding scale based upon its evaluation of religious doctrine. This is a very dangerous path.
Now, this is not to say that there are certain instances where religious beliefs supersede otherwise applicable law. For example, a Baptist church can rightfully limit its search for a new pastor to only those that are ordained by a Baptist seminary, just as a synagogue can rightfully limit the search for a new rabbi to those that received smicha (ordination) from an institution it recognizes. Note, however, the common thread that exists here. These are religious institutions acting in their religious capacity; they are not for-profit corporations seeking to evade obligations under the law by way of claiming religious liberty.”
To be very Blunt about it. Only PEOPLE are PEOPLE and the unalienable rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson, and the rights specified in the Bill of Rights are rights that PEOPLE have. Corporations, companies, associations, businesses any ‘group’ of individuals chartered or licensed to engage in a particular enterprise is NOT a PERSON! In fact, all such entities are the creations of LAW and thus their CREATOR is the STATE and they have ONLY those rights they are ‘endowed’ with by their creator in thier charters, licenses, and law; the STATE!
If a PERSON’s religious beliefs do not allow him or her to comply with some law that affects those engaged in a particular enterprise that may LEGALLY be engaged in (by charter, licenses, law) then the ONLY option the PERSON has is to NOT engage in that enterprise. The idea that the enterprise (what ever it’s nature) has the RIGHTS of a PERSON is illogical, ludicrous, absurd, idiotic, and if it worn’t so dangerous, laughable.