The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 was the product two members of the US House of Representatives, Howard McKeon (R-CA) and Dean Gallo (R-New Jersey). It passed the House unanimously, passed the Senate with three dissenting vote, and was signed by Clinton. Specifically, it was addressed the concept of, “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.” In other words, the law states that even if a persons religious observations differ from the core of the general population, the rights of that person shall not be impeded. Interestingly, Hobby Lobby has sued the government because the requirements of the Affordable Care Act are in conflict with the owners of the corporation. They have sued the government claiming violation of the RFRA. Nothing in the Affordable Care Act places a burden on the owners and their personal exercise of their religious observations, but it does impede their opportunity to thrust their religious views onto others. The RFRA protect a persons freedom of religion, even if that religious belief is a minority view. Nowhere in the law did it extend that right to corporations. Corporate personhood is not a guarantee provided in our Constitution or in our Bill of Rights. Corporate personhood has been an evolving extension of personal rights handed down not by our lawmakers, but decided by activist justices on our Supreme Court. The first major step forward in corporate power encroaching into the rights provided people came in 1888, the Supreme Court said, Under the designation of person there is no doubt that a private corporation is included [in the Fourteenth Amendment]. Such corporations are merely associations of individuals united for a special purpose and permitted to do business under a particular name and have a succession of members without dissolution. There had been USSC rulings favoring corporate personhood prior to that, but that was a substantial victory for Korporate Amerika. Then, in 2010, using a USSC packed with hand-picked Konservatives, the USSC gave Korporate Amerika another big win giving them the same rights in political involvement as had been substantially held as a persons right. Today, the same USSC that gave away personal rights to corporations is again weighing yet another decision that could hand Korporate Amerika more personal rights which will be used to impede the rights of actual persons. Nowhere in our Constitution or in our Bill of Rights did our founding fathers give corporations personhood. Lets see if our hand-picked, Konservative run USSC will decide that the protections afforded religious rights in the RFRA can be used by Korporate Amerika to inflict their personal religious viewpoints on persons in America.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:55:48 +0000
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