Burwell V. Hobby Case Summary

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The Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision allows for closely held for-profit corporations to be exempt from a law if the owners feel it violates their religious convictions. (Closely held corporations make up 90 percent of all businesses and 52 percent of private employment.) The decision specifically addresses the contraception mandate of the Affordable Care Act. The ruling is based on an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and not the free exercise portion of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

At first it may seem that this decision extends religious freedom but in effect it reduces it. True religious liberty means that people are free to do as they please within a religious context as long as it doesn't harm others or impose their beliefs on others. Religious freedom means creating a secular environment where religion can never be imposed upon anyone. Laws are established without involving religion and do not address religion in any way. Contrary to this the Hobby Lobby ruling allows the beliefs of an individual or group of individuals to be imposed upon another set of people. The employees of the company are now being governed by the private beliefs of the owners and not their own beliefs. Employees can now legally be harmed by another person's religious beliefs. …show more content…
In this case the belief of the owner overrides the belief of the employee. In a truly religiously free context the owner can just choose not to get vaccines or vaccinate their own children while the employee is free to vaccinate their children as their belief requires. This means that in practice nobody's religious freedom is being infringed
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