When Mitt Romney famously declared while campaigning in Iowa in August 2011 that “corporations are people,” he was widely mocked—at least by those on the left. Yet, as a matter of constitutional principle he was largely right. And last week the Supreme Court announced it will decide whether to extend that principle to for-profit corporations seeking to invoke religious beliefs as a shield against a mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which requires them to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees.
The abortion issues underlying the two cases the court agreed to review—one from the Tenth Circuit, the other from the Third—undoubtedly will generate even more heated debate about the Affordable Care Act. From a constitutional perspective, however, the major tension in these cases is between respecting freedom of religion on the one hand and opening the door to corporate discrimination in the guise of religious conviction on the other. Given that for-profit corporations have never before been held to have First Amendment free exercise rights and given the potential consequences of such a holding, these cases bear close watching.
