Do corporations get more religious freedom than actual people?

Corporate headquarters of IBM, which recently converted to Islam and changed its name to MHMD. This joke by Ben Gabriel

Corporate headquarters of IBM, which recently converted to Islam and changed its name to MHMD. This joke by Ben “The Angel” Gabriel

Over at Forbes, Avik Roy is bucking conventional wisdom to argue that yesterday’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is not the victory for social conservatives that everyone says it is. Sure, corporations with sincerely held religious beliefs don’t have to pay for IUDs—which some Christians who own national craft store chains consider a form of abortion—but that potentially shifts the burden of payment onto the taxpayer. Health and Human Services could extend the same accommodation to Hobby Lobby that it offered to Catholic institutions under the Affordable Care Act, by having the federal government cover the costs of so-called abortofacient birth control devices. So instead of the very, very good people at Hobby Lobby paying for their cashiers’ IUDs out of corporate funds, Christians across the country could do it with their taxes.

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