PROFIT, BUSINESS CORPORATIONS AND RELIGION: THE HOBBY LOBBY CASE

For-profit corporations have legal standing to demand legal protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the US Supreme Court granted RFRA protection to a business entity, thereby exempting it from a rule of general applicability. It did so on the grounds that such organizations are comprised by the word person mentioned in RFRA. But also because business corporations may pursuit ends other than profit maximization. And finally, it ruled against the federal Government because commercial and religious spheres are not to be regarded as if they were incompatible. Besides the interest this decision has in and of itself, it is worth discussing it for the importance it may have to Chile. Since chances of conflict between the Government and corporations, either nonprofit or for-profit, increase over time, the Hobby Lobby case represents a source for useful and tested arguments for the local debate.