That 7-2 determination has me remarkably weirded out. Why does religion usurp flat, ubiquitous workers' rights, and to which bodies does this extend beyond religious schools? What's it take to get a business registered as a 'religious-oriented' business? Could we see a Religion of Walmart, where the bottom workers must adhere to strict ascetism? The Way of Kohls, where not hawking enough store credit cards brands you a heretic and strips you of your uniform?
There are no worker's rights in the Constitution (and ain't that something?), but there
are religious rights in it. In the original case establishing it, SCOTUS ruled that religions must inherently have the right to select their own ministers. But minister is a vague term, for is a teacher not ministering? Is not anyone who does a job that isn't sitting in a box alone all day, hammering down nails? And thus with this ruling they expand their original vaguery to consume everything. Worse still, even a law passed by Congress would hardly strip it out since at least 7 of the 9 Justices believe this ministerial bullshit is implied by the Constitution. So it's an amendment or court packing to solve this. I still say private schooling should be illegal wholesale.
As for Walmartism, there is nothing stopping it. Truthfully, there was nothing stopping it before today either, save incredulousness. Because US law promises not to regulate religions, it also does not
define what a religion is. That's how John Oliver was able to set up Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption and get recognized by the actual fucking IRS as a religion in spite of it being openly a joke.
Legally speaking, there is nothing stopping Walmart from reorganizing themselves as the practice of the Walmartist faith, and thus require all Walmart employees to be devout Walmartists, believers in the sacred nature of Low Low Prices and loyal to God's prophets in the Walton family. One wonders if L. Ron Hubbard didn't see this angle eighty years before the rest of us did...
Everybody still think state atheism is a bad idea?
I guess, in level terms- what's the short and long term ramifications of this decision?
- Employees of religious organizations now have effectively no legal protections, since discrimination law is one of the very few employment laws that is regularly enforced. Want to put "Irish need not apply" in an ad for a janitor at your brainwashing academy? Perfectly legal! Hell, you can technically get real crazy with it, require virginity checks or daily polygraphs or whatever you like.
- That in turn is so bad that some of these religious organizations may end up specifically claiming some positions are non-ministerial, if this drives away job applicants.
- As I said in my previous post, lower courts have ruled that ministerial exemption blocks even sexual harassment and wage lawsuits, so expect to see that finding its way to SCOTUS either this fall or next.
- This will surely generate horror stories to make the general reputation of Christianity in the US even worse, so at least we've got that going for us.
Have we heard through the grapevine if they're planning to upend anything else that we take for granted in a modern civilization?
The ruling on Trump's tax returns hits tomorrow - I haven't reviewed the legal challenge so I have no idea how it will go. That's the end of session for SCOTUS rulings this year, but of course they could always have Thomas and Alito resign a week later and replace them with a pair of 20-year old neo-Nazis- sorry, "classical liberals".
Actually, there's no legal requirement that Supreme Court Justices be adults, or citizens, or even alive for that matter. No restrictions are listed in the Constitution save that Congress can impeach them.
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