Do Corporations Have Religious Beliefs?

Authors

Jason Iuliano, Princeton UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2015

Publication Citation

90 Indiana Law Journal 47 (2015)

Abstract

Despite two hundred years of jurisprudence on the topic of corporate personhood, the Supreme Court has failed to endorse a philosophically defensible theory of the corporation. In this Article, I attempt to fill that void. Drawing upon the extensive philosophical literature on personhood and group agency, I argue that corporations qualify as persons in their own right. This leads me to answer the titular question with an emphatic yes. Contrary to how it first seems, that conclusion does not warrant granting expansive constitutional rights to corporations. It actually suggests the opposite. Using the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate as a case study, I develop this theory of corporate personhood and explore some of its constitutional implications.

Recommended Citation

Iuliano, Jason (2015) "Do Corporations Have Religious Beliefs?," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 90: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol90/iss1/2