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GrandPoobah -> RE: Privacy v. Employment (3/27/2012 1:18:02 PM)
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ORIGINAL: kalikshama
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How ironic, since companies are now demanding the right to make decisions based on their religious beliefs.
I was reading about polygamy yesterday and found this and wonder how it applies to the contraception issue. My take is that religious employers must follow employment law because to do otherwise would constitute an action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._United_States#Religious_Duty_argument
In the ruling, the court quoted a letter from Thomas Jefferson in which he stated that there was a distinction between religious belief and action that flowed from religious belief. The former "lies solely between man and his God," therefore "the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions." The court argued that if polygamy was allowed, someone might eventually argue that human sacrifice was a necessary part of their religion, and "to permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself." The Court believed the true spirit of the First Amendment was that Congress could not legislate against opinion, but could legislate against action.
Jefferson's position makes sense, and I doubt the Action clause would stand up in any case. Suppose, for example, that you were arrested for murder, and claimed that your religious beliefs required that you kill the person...because of their religion or their actions. Not likely that would fly, even if you truly believed it was true.
Now, on a related subject, I wonder what would be said if, during an employment interview, you asked the company if they discriminated against employees by not allowing them to have medical coverage that included birth control as a part of their benefits package. First, I'm betting they wouldn't answer, but, assuming they did, I wonder what would happen if they said that they did, you promptly stood up and said "Well, I would never want to work for a company that openly discriminated against their employees and tried to force their own religious beliefs upon their employees. Any company that does that would, obviously, discriminate for any number of other reasons, since they clearly provide a workplace that is not free of discrimination." You could add that you would report the company to the EEC, because they openly acknowledged that they allow discrimination in their workplace.
Obviously you wouldn't get the job, but the results once you left the room would be truly interesting.
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