{"id":13470,"date":"2015-10-15T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T00:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13470"},"modified":"2023-01-25T16:39:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T00:39:31","slug":"conscience-and-complicity-assessing-pleas-for-religious-exemptions-in-hobby-lobbys-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13470","title":{"rendered":"Conscience and Complicity: Assessing Pleas for Religious Exemptions in Hobby Lobby&#8217;s Wake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Amy J Sepinwall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><br>In the paradigmatic case of conscientious objection, the objector claims that his religion forbids him from actively participating in a wrong (for example, by fighting in a war). In the religious challenges to the Affordable Care Act\u2019s employer mandate, on the other hand, employers claim that their religious convictions forbid them from merely subsidizing insurance through which their employees might commit a wrong (for example, by using contraception). The understanding of complicity underpinning these challenges is vastly more expansive than the standard that legal doctrine or moral theory contemplates. Courts routinely reject claims of conscientious objection to taxes that fund military initiatives or to university fees that support abortion services. In Hobby Lobby, however, the Supreme Court took the corporate owners at their word: the mere fact that Hobby Lobby believed that it would be complicit, no matter how idiosyncratic its belief, sufficed to qualify it for an exemption. In this way, the Court made elements of an employee\u2019s health-care package the \u201cboss\u2019s business\u201d (to borrow from the nickname of the Democrats\u2019 proposed bill to overturn Hobby Lobby). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of the critical reaction to Hobby Lobby focuses on the issue of corporate rights of religious freedom. Yet this issue is a red herring. The deeper concerns that Hobby Lobby raises\u2014about whether employers may now refuse, on religious grounds, to subsidize other forms of health coverage (for example, blood transfusions or vaccinations) or to serve customers whose lifestyles they deplore (for example, gays and lesbians)\u2014do not turn on the organizational form that the employer has adopted. Instead, the more significant issue goes to our understanding of complicity: When is it reasonable for an employer (for-profit or nonprofit, corporate or\nindividual) to think itself complicit in the conduct of its employees or customers?  And when is a reasonable claim of complicity compelling enough to warrant an accommodation, especially when that accommodation would impose costs on third parties?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Sepinwall AJ. <a href=\"https:\/\/lawreview.uchicago.edu\/publication\/conscience-and-complicity-assessing-pleas-religious-exemptions-hobby-lobby%E2%80%99s-wake\">Conscience and Complicity: Assessing Pleas for Religious Exemptions in Hobby Lobby&#8217;s Wake<\/a>. U Chicago Law Rev. 2015 Fall; 82:1897-1980.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amy J Sepinwall AbstractIn the paradigmatic case of conscientious objection, the objector claims that his religion forbids him from actively participating in a wrong (for example, by fighting in a war). In the religious challenges to the Affordable Care Act\u2019s employer mandate, on the other hand, employers claim that their religious convictions forbid them from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13470\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Conscience and Complicity: Assessing Pleas for Religious Exemptions in Hobby Lobby&#8217;s Wake&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,554,2,559],"tags":[1556,933],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contraception","category-ethics","category-journal-article","category-law","tag-amy-j-sepinwall","tag-complicity"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Conscience and Complicity: Assessing Pleas for Religious Exemptions in Hobby Lobby&#039;s Wake - 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