We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Morally Regulatable Lives: Corporate Sovereignty, the Rise of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, and the Ironic Demise of The Walt Disney Company's Reedy Creek Improvement District.
- Authors
Jones-Doherty, Ashton P.
- Abstract
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is a misunderstood case. Since the decision in 2014, scholars have split into two camps, debating Hobby Lobby's religious liberty concerns. One camp argues Hobby Lobby unconstitutionally allows corporations the right to enact religiously motivated policies where the corporate purpose is purely secular, whereas the other camp argues Hobby Lobby simply affirms an ownership's right to control the corporation pursuant to their religious interests without government intervention. Both camps miss Hobby Lobby's underlying reasoning, debating the religious liberty interests while ignoring the case's constitutional affirmation of corporate sovereignty. A corporate sovereign, or leviathan, exists when a company controls territory and develops moral regulation based on a company leadership's/ownership's values for their employees and/or customers, a power called soulcraft. By describing this phenomenon, this Article advances Hobby Lobby's debate by exploring the implications of a corporate ownership's "power to impose" moral regulation onto employees, the essential characteristic of sovereignty. In doing so, it defines Hobby Lobby as a broad constitutional protection of corporate sovereignty--a doctrine previously only affirmed in state statute, as with The Walt Disney Company's Reedy Creek Improvement District, or through pure corporate will, as with some company towns--not simply as a religious liberty case. Crucially, this Article does not claim corporate sovereigns, like Hobby Lobby and Disney, are as powerful as states, but neither does it diminish their regulatory authority over Americans. In its reasoning and holding, Hobby Lobby constitutionally legitimizes corporations' sovereign power to morally regulate our lives. That power is formidable and should be acknowledged. This Article explores why.
- Subjects
FREEDOM of religion; CORPORATION law; LEGAL judgments; SOVEREIGNTY; CORPORATE personhood; POWER (Social sciences)
- Publication
Arizona State Law Journal, 2023, Vol 55, Issue 2, p507
- ISSN
0164-4297
- Publication type
Article