The Rise of Corporate Religious Liberty
Micah Schwartzman, Chad Flanders, and Zoë Robinson
Abstract
What are the rights of religious institutions? Should those rights extend to for-profit corporations? These questions are now the subject of significant controversy. In the United States, churches have long asserted claims to institutional autonomy, especially with respect to laws interferring with their internal governance. Faith-based nonprofits have claimed similar rights, and now for-profit corporations have as well, with the Supreme Court vindicating their rights in the landmark decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. This book explores the corporate turn in law and religion. Part I ... More
What are the rights of religious institutions? Should those rights extend to for-profit corporations? These questions are now the subject of significant controversy. In the United States, churches have long asserted claims to institutional autonomy, especially with respect to laws interferring with their internal governance. Faith-based nonprofits have claimed similar rights, and now for-profit corporations have as well, with the Supreme Court vindicating their rights in the landmark decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. This book explores the corporate turn in law and religion. Part I addresses the shift from individual to institutional accounts of religious liberty, focusing on “freedom of the church” in the context of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, involving the constitutional foundations of the “ministerial exception” to antidiscrimination laws. Part II marks the transition from claims of church autonomy to corporate rights of religious free exercise. Part III looks at the implications of the Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby for same-sex marriage, health care, and religious freedom. Part IV presents various legal, moral, and philosophical challenges to corporate religious liberty.
Keywords:
religious liberty,
religious institutions,
corporate rights,
church autonomy,
Hobby Lobby,
Hosanna-Tabor
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190262525 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190262525.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Micah Schwartzman, editor
Edward F. Howrey Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Chad Flanders, editor
Associate Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law
Zoë Robinson, editor
Professor of Law, DePaul University School of Law
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