I have pondered for a while on what I should say about this. The Supreme
Court handed down its decision in this case, allowing closely held
corporations to hide behind the RFRA when they want to ignore certain
portions of the ACA. I am concerned that these corporations will now try
to push the boundaries of that ruling.
Since it is health care, their first step would be to deny spousal
coverage to same-sex couples where it is legal for them to be married.
That would take care of the two most important social issues for the
religious right, gay marriage and the bodily autonomy of women. But
then, they would begin to push out of the health care arena to other
aspects of life. Would we see them hire a chaplain and then make chapel
services mandatory for thousands of employees? After all, their holy
book says that they must share their beliefs with all the world. A
corporation owned by muslims could then require all female employees to
wear the hijab and never speak to any man unless spoken to first. Can
you imagine the outcry from that?
The flaw is in the RFRA. The goal of that law when it was passed was
laudable. Its intintion is to make sure that the government has a
compelling reason to restrict the religious rights of and individual.
Key word: individual. Thanks to unintended consequences, corporations
are now held to be individuals with respect to the RFRA. It now does not
matter that allowing a corporation to exercise its religious freedoms
can restrict the religious freedoms of millions. The solution is to
repeal the RFRA, or at the very least, replace it with something that
defines religious freedom as belonging to individual people living in
the country.
