Religious Freedom Restoration Act and contreseption

Such a requirement, the Greens and the Hahns argue, violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which says "government may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion" only if it is "the least restrictive means" of serving a "compelling governmental interest." Congress passed RFRA almost unanimously in response to a 1990 Supreme Court decision that loosened the restraints on laws that limit religious freedom.

Last June the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled that the contraceptive mandate probably fails RFRA's test, opening the way to a preliminary injunction barring the government from enforcing the rule against the Greens. A month later the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit rejected the Hahns' RFRA claim, declaring that "a for-profit, secular corporation cannot engage in the exercise of religion."

Money changes everything, I guess. As the 10th Circuit pointed out, it is well established that nonprofit corporations such as churches can "engage in the exercise of religion." The Obama administration conceded as much when it exempted houses of worship from the contraceptive mandate.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has heard religious freedom claims by Jewish merchants who challenged a Sunday closing law and by an Amish employer who objected to paying Social Security taxes. If people do not lose their religious liberty when they create nonprofit corporations or when they start businesses, why should they sacrifice this right when they combine the corporate form with a monetary motive?

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that for-profit corporations (such as the New York Times Company) are protected by the First Amendment, recognizing that such organizations are one way individuals exercise their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The same is true of religious freedom.

To insist otherwise requires a kind of compartmentalization that is anathema to people whose faith infuses the way they do business. "Since Conestoga is distinct from the Hahns," the 3rd Circuit averred, "the Mandate does not actually require the Hahns to do anything." Maybe the court could explain that to God.