Hobby Lobby, RFRA, and Family Burdens

Abstract

The Supreme Court held in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act sometimes requires that for-profit corporations be exempted from federal requirements that would have forced those corporations to act contrary to their sincerely held convictions. But the Hobby Lobby Court misrepresented free exercise jurisprudence and offered an implausible interpretation of RFRA, which if taken seriously would result in exemptions that neither members of the Court nor members of Congress would countenance. In the long run, Hobby Lobby will have to be narrowly construed but in the short run the decision is likely to cause even greater inconsistency in the law, satisfying neither the religious nor the non-religious.

Keywords: Free Exercise, RFRA, Conscience, Burdens, Corporations, For-Profit, Exemption

JEL Classification: K10