“In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs. … Compelling governmental interests in uniform compliance with the law, and disadvantages that religion-based opt-outs impose on others, hold no sway, the Court decides, at least when there is a ‘less restrictive alternative.’ And such an alternative, the Court suggests, there always will be whenever, in lieu of tolling an enterprise claiming a religion-based exemption, the government, i.e., the general public, can pick up the tab (Ginsberg, 2014).
Today, corporations now have constitutional protections under, the 14th amendment though equal protection, and 1st amendment including both free speech and religious freedom. This is dangerous because corporations as a legal entity, were formed to separate the activities of the individual from the activities of the corporation. If a company is involved in illegal or risky activity, that accountability for those actions do not come down onto a single person but rather on the company as a whole. That is the incentive to incorporate. To what extent can a company with thousands of employees practice religious beliefs though a corporation? Under this logic could the first amendment be used to defend an employer who does not believe in gay marriage and has a problem against employing homosexual individuals?
Under court rulings such as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the company’s religious liberties hold greater legal precedence than the health and well being of the individual. This is because so much of the US healthcare insurance system depends on insurance provided by employers. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby shows that in the United States, when the employer’s and the employees’ fundamental beliefs and wellbeing are at odds, the employer’s beliefs and well-being prevail. The consequences for this could possibly lead to life and death if such beliefs in corporate personhood win over the rights the natural person. Although a corporation may in many ways contain a mixture of real people with their own constitutionally protected liberties, the company itself is not living and breathing and the well-being of that company is not subject to heath complications.
In sum, under the logic of the Supreme Court, corporate religious liberties, when they prove to be most profitable, trump the health of its employees. Allowing companies to cherry pick coverage when it is most convenient under federal law does not allow fair standing for natural persons who seek the most affordable and accessible option.
Workers should not need to enter into employment with companies like Hobby Lobby with a clear understanding of its founders closely held beliefs, because the private business model needs to remain secular. When the workforce discriminates and acts on personal beliefs we have an unequal environment. Allowing companies to withhold benefits because of personal preface is dangerous for equality. Just because women have different medical needs that conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs, does not mean that the employers liberties are more important. The United States has a longstanding belief that when an individual’s exercise of personal liberties conflict with another’s, that other person’s liberties should not be infringed upon. In the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and other cases concerning corporate personhood that’s exactly what happens, but on a very large scale.