[EL] another perspective on Hobby Lobby/ How the Hobby Lobby ruling transforms and weakens the American corporation

[David Ely]

I think you are confusing two very different ideas. One is the right of Corporations to express opinions about issues, which Corporations have long had. The other is the right to be exempted from generally applicable laws based on those opinions. That is where the election law concern from Hobby Lobby arises.

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Joe La Rue
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 6:36 AM
To: Schultz, David A.
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] another perspective on Hobby Lobby/ How the Hobby Lobby ruling transforms and weakens the American corporation

 

David: 

 

I think your op-ed is mistaken but did not want to wage this debate on the list serve because I think it's badly off-topic.   I will simply say two things.  Firs,t if the horrible outcomes you suggest as possible were going to occur, they would have already happened.  Corporations have long had constitutional and other protections afforded to natural persons.  Second, many (perhaps most) corporations already take positions on moral questions.  Many very publicly support marriage redefinition.  Some take very public positions regarding environmentalism and/or global warming.   If you are going to suggest that a corporation, owned by an actual family, should not take a position on what they sincerely believe to be abortifacients, are you likewise willing to suggest that corporations should cease taking positions on what they sincerely believe is "marriage equality" or "climate change?" 

 

Joe


On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 5:09 AM, Schultz, David A. <dschultz at hamline.edu> wrote:

Joe:  
Hobby Lobby and Citizens United both have  implications for election law.  Hobby Lobby takes us further down the road toward giving corporations more rights that real persons have and in the process, sets precedents for further challenges to restrictions on corporate political activity.  Hobby Lobby and CU together, as my op-ed point out, show some of the implications that go with politicizing  corporate behavior and eviscerating the line between real persons and corporations.  I had hoped that if you read my op-ed you would have seen that point.

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