The Supreme Court's awful Hobby Lobby decision just spawned a very ugly stepchild

[icymist]

"The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield.”

That’s how Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg concluded her dissent to the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision. That’s the case in which the court ruled that businesses have a right to their own religious beliefs, and could use them to flout otherwise generally applicable federal laws — in this particular, the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that businesses provide contraceptive coverage as part of their employees’ health insurance.

The minefield Ginsburg warned about has now detonated. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sean F. Cox of Detroit ruled that a local funeral home was well within its rights to fire a transgender employee because its owner had a religious belief that gender transition violated biblical teachings.

"
If religious motivation exempted businesses from anti-discrimination laws, our government would be powerless to enforce those laws.
— ACLU brief in EEOC vs. Harris

<snip>
At first, the case resembled an ordinary sex-discrimination matter. The employer’s defense was that it had a written dress code distinguishing between men’s and women’s working garb, and Stephens had refused to wear men’s clothing. Soon, the funeral homes added a religious dimension, citing the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the same statute underlying the Hobby Lobby case. That legislation was designed to give people a pass on generally applicable laws if they could show that the burdens imposed on their beliefs outweighed the public’s interest.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-hobby-child-20160819-snap-story.html?utm_content=buffere97bd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[rickford66]

1. My solution

If the "business" invokes its religious belief about something, then they must prove that they follow all the teachings of their particular religion to the letter. If they "pick and choose" as most of these cases seem to be about, then they get fined.

[ncjustice80]

5. They need to just drop the religious exemptions, in all cases, period.

[MattP]

2. You can pretty much fire anybody now and hide behind religious bigotry

Another reason why this election is so important

[shenmue]

3. Yes

[stopbush]

4. We as a species need to move beyond allowing people's

belief in make believe to trump the real lives of real people.

[CincyDem]

6. How many have died in pursuit of...

..."my make believe is better than your make believe".

Such a crock. All of it.

[nightscanner59]

7. hear, hear

It is a dangerously thin line that separates reason from a repeat of the inquisition.

[CincyDem]

8. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. One of Monty Python's enduring contributions.

[LeftRant]

9. I am so feeling you guys.

You can claim anything as a "deeply held belief that must be respected." Madness.