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Series

2016

Business Organizations Law

Hobby Lobby

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Rise Of Corporate Religious Liberty, Micah Schwartzman, Chad Flanders, Zoe Robinson Jan 2016

The Rise Of Corporate Religious Liberty, Micah Schwartzman, Chad Flanders, Zoe Robinson

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This Introduction to our edited book, The Rise of Corporate Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2016), offers an account of the “corporate turn” in law and religion. Here the term “corporate” refers to any organized body of people - groups, associations, organizations, and institutions - and, more specifically, to for-profit corporations. Our contention is that the relationship between law and religion has shifted dramatically in the last decade, moving from a conception of religious freedom focused mainly on individual liberty toward one that privileges the rights of religious organizations. We trace this development in two stages, describing the initial movement …


Line Drawing In Corporate Rights Determinations, Elizabeth Pollman Jan 2016

Line Drawing In Corporate Rights Determinations, Elizabeth Pollman

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This essay was written for the 21st Annual Clifford Symposium: The Supreme Court, Business, and Civil Justice. The essay argues that existing lines drawn between corporations may be a useful starting place for analyzing the rights of corporations, but caution must be used because the lines drawn in other areas were done for various policy reasons in different contexts that may not map onto the corporate rights determination. Attention should be paid to the specific characteristics of corporations that are relevant to the right at stake and the basis for extending protection. The key contribution of this essay is to …


Corporate Law And Theory In Hobby Lobby, Elizabeth Pollman Jan 2016

Corporate Law And Theory In Hobby Lobby, Elizabeth Pollman

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Does a business corporation constitute a “person” that can “exercise religion” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993? In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Supreme Court answered this novel question in the affirmative, but this chapter shows that its anemic treatment of corporate law and theory provided little guidance on how to implement and limit the landmark ruling. This chapter critically examines the issues of corporate law and theory driving the Court’s analysis: (1) the theory of the corporation as a right holder; (2) corporate purpose; (3) the “closely held” category; and (4) state corporate law as …


Constitutionalizing Corporate Law, Elizabeth Pollman Jan 2016

Constitutionalizing Corporate Law, Elizabeth Pollman

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The Supreme Court has recently decided some of the most important and controversial cases involving the federal rights of corporations in over two hundred years of jurisprudence. In rulings ranging from corporate political spending to religious liberty rights, the Court has dramatically expanded the zone in which corporations can act free from regulation. This Article argues these decisions represent a doctrinal shift, even from previous cases granting rights to corporations. The modern corporate rights doctrine has put unprecedented weight on state corporate law to act as a mechanism for resolving disputes among corporate participants regarding the expressive and religious activity …