Someone Was Paying Attention (Hint: It Wasn't The NSA)

As we all know, there are two cases coming before the Supreme Court (Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp v. Sebelius) that argue the novel (if not insane) concept that corporations/businesses have religious liberties.  Both Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood ground their arguments in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA aka Obamacare) places a non-acceptable burden on the religious liberties of these two corporations.

A coalition of organizations* were paying attention though and have filed an amicus brief asking the Court to rule whether or not the RFRA is even constitutional.  In my view, this is a very welcome game changer.  Let us hope the Supreme Court takes the brief seriously and considers the constitutionality of the RFRA.

I want to thank Lyle Denniston over at the SCOTUSBlog for writing up an easy to read article regarding this amicus brief.

*The coalition that filed the amicus brief is made up of the following organizations:

1.  Freedom From Religion Foundation

2.  BishopAccountability.org

3.  Children's Healthcare Is A Legal Duty, Inc (CHILD, Inc)

4.  Child Protection Project

5.  Foundation To Abolish Child Sex Abuse

6.  Survivors For Justice

7.  Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priests

Corporations, Religious Views and the ACA: A Question To Ask

Last week (November 26th), the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases on whether or not corporations are allowed, based on their religious views and/or the religious views of their owners, to not provide insurance plans that cover contraceptives to their employees.

I just have one question that I wish a Supreme Court Justice would ask, that I think would end this farcical concept that corporations have religious rights: When is the last time Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp or any other company/corporation attended church, mass, prayers, temple, etc?

The answer would be be "never".  Since corporations cannot attend an institution of faith and since corporations do not have "free will" as their works for legal fiction, they cannot hold religious views.  To rule otherwise, would be insane.

Too bad my question won't be asked.