Written by Don Byrd
We’ve seen this question pop up more than once lately as judges grapple with requests from secular employers for exemptions from regulations similar to those enjoyed by religious institutions like houses of worship and denominational organizations. It is a question I expect we will hear much about in the next year or two as cases challenging health insurance requirements wind their way through the judicial system.
Associated Press reports that in one case, the government is explicitly arguing that such companies do not qualify because they are not capable of exercising religion.
“Hobby Lobby is a for-profit, secular employer, and a secular entity by definition does not exercise religion,” the government said. It says a corporation and its owners are separate entities and Hobby Lobby’s owners, the Green family, cannot eliminate the legal separation to impose their religious beliefs on the company and its employees.
Thegovernment’s response also says granting an injunction “would permit for-profit, secular corporations and their owners to become laws unto themselves.”
Hobby Lobby is free to discourage the use of contraceptives, the government said, but an employee’s health care choices remain his or her own.
Will employees be subject to the religious beliefs of employers, even if not a religious institution? Why give employers this power?
