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posted by janrinok on Wednesday March 26 2014, @10:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the companies==people-er-does-not-compute dept.

gishzida writes:

"According to a Reuters report Supreme Court signals support for corporate religious claims, "The U.S. Supreme Court appeared poised on Tuesday to open the door to companies' religious-based objections to government regulations as justices weighed whether business owners can object to part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law. From the article:

During a 90-minute oral argument, 30 minutes more than usual, a majority of the nine justices appeared ready to rule that certain for-profit entities have the same religious rights to object as individuals do. A ruling along those lines would likely only apply to closely held companies. As in most close cases of late, Justice Anthony Kennedy will likely be the deciding vote. Based on his questions, it was unclear whether the court would ultimately rule that the companies had a right to an exemption from the contraception provision of President Barack Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

The dozens of companies involved in the litigation do not all oppose every type of birth control. Some object only to emergency contraceptive methods, such as the so-called morning-after pill, which they view as akin to abortion.

The case marks the second time Obamacare has featured prominently before the Supreme Court. In 2012, the court upheld by a 5-4 vote the constitutionality of the act's core feature requiring people to get health insurance. Although the case has no bearing on the overall healthcare law, it features its own volatile mix of religious rights and reproductive rights. A capacity crowd filled the marble courtroom, while outside hundreds of demonstrators, most of them women, protested loudly in an early spring snowstorm.

We already know that the SCOTUS thinks corporations are citizens, do you think the SCOTUS should allow corporations to have religious beliefs too?"

 
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  • (Score: 1) by rochrist on Thursday March 27 2014, @08:45PM

    by rochrist (3737) on Thursday March 27 2014, @08:45PM (#22223)

    If Lobby Hobby prevails, it will have wide ranging repercussions. And yes, it will be advancing us towards a theocracy.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 28 2014, @02:16AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 28 2014, @02:16AM (#22346) Journal

    If Lobby Hobby prevails, it will have wide ranging repercussions. And yes, it will be advancing us towards a theocracy.

    Care to give an explanation for why you think this is the case?

    All I can say is that I don't see the emerging theocracy coming from this. For example, the corporations involved are religious by their bylaws (that right there restricts the case to a small number of possible beneficiaries) and are acting in ways consistent with their religious views. It's not gaming of the system in order to save money on health insurance or increase their political power.

    Meanwhile Obamacare, the law that is the instigation for this lawsuit really is unconstitutional in a number of ways, such as imposing abortion and birth control insurance mandates on employers with valid religious objections to those things. Perhaps, we should stop passing terrible law that leads to fertile opportunity for these judicial decisions which are supposedly so dangerous?