LONG POST WARNING: I rarely post political things on Facebook because I dont think social media (or any sort of non-personal discussion medium) is a good place to bring together opposing points of review (too easy for discussions to degenerate because of inflamed passions). If you choose to comment on this post, I note Im going to delete anything that smells like crap (liberals this, conservatives that, Obama is the devil, George Bush ruined us all). With that said, I felt compelled to remark on the Supreme Court ruling today regarding the provision of the healthcare law as it applies to companies with religious beliefs (AP Article linked for your reference if you havent read it yet). My remarks arent about the ruling itself per se but rather the concerning trend I observe in the assignment of rights to corporations that were previously held only by natural persons. A corporation is a legal entity designed to provide continuity of function of a business. They were granted limited rights as a person so that they can own property, hold debts, and a few other miscellaneous things. This concept of a corporation is brilliant. It saves aggravation, time, money, and minimizes risk when companies have to change hands because the original founder(s) dies, becomes incompetent, wishes to leave the business, or something else. I do not believe corporations are people. People are people. People get freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly. The people who work at corporations get these things. I also dont believe that there is a simple answer around the sticky question of whether my religious (or ethical or whatever else) views as an owner of a business are superior or subordinate to the views held by those who work for me. While I note that the SCOTUS narrowly scoped their ruling to address companies where the ownership is so small that there is no essential difference between the business and its owners, it begs a great many questions in my mind. Does this create a precedent for other tightly controlled firms to make other rulings based upon religious belief? What is the standard against religious companies will be held to validate that their decisions are driven by belief vs. something else? Must they file a religious charter? Is there a test for Orthodoxy? (Sure Brian, youre Jewish but youre not Jewish enough so were sorry you cant do that). Does there become a religious compliance officer who files quarterly statements with some government agency to prove the company is still religious enough to say they dont want to do x? Is there an opportunity for religious belief to a reason for other forms of behavior? Can I refuse to hire someone because they are not of my same religion? (Some religious texts require really anti-social behavior from their adherents against infidels). I genuinely wonder these things. Ive spent more time thinking about this than I wanted this morning and Id love to spend hours discussing this with people but Ive got work to do now!
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:54:23 +0000
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