Trump is delivering on or at least signing documents that
appear to deliver on many of his campaign promises. He made promises to the
evangelical Christians and ultra-conservatives which he’s delivering on with
his nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to be a justice on the Supreme Court. Not
only is Gorsuch a man in the mold of Antonin Scalia which Trump promised his
nominee would be, he’s also the mind behind the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision
with gave corporations the right to be exempt from laws that offend their
shareholders. Frankly I’ll believe that a corporation has religious rights when
I meet one in church.
One of the defining reasons to incorporate your business is
to protect yourself from legal responsibility for actions and liabilities of
the business. If you incorporate your business you have created a legal entity
with the rights and responsibilities to engage in business and if the entity is
sued the owners are not a party to the lawsuit in most cases. Gorsuch’s
decision bridges the gap between the owner and the corporation enabling the
owner to claim that the business shares their religious convictions and
therefore should be exempt from providing insurance coverage the provides
contraception. In my view bridging that gap pierces the “corporate veil” which
protects shareholders and may one day come back to haunt businesses due to the
loss of protection offered by it.
Trump also recently announced that his
administration would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits
churches from engaging in political activity at the risk of losing their
tax-exempt status. Such a repeal of the law would require approval by Congress.
Currently certain tax-exempt organizations — in this case, churches — are not
allowed to openly endorse or campaign for political candidates. If they do,
under existing law, they risk losing the benefits of their tax-exempt status.
Should Trump get his way he’ll be able to honestly say he’s delivered on
another campaign promise to evangelicals who have chafed under this restriction
for quite some time. There are even organizations of lawyers who among other
issues have repeatedly attempted to get this restriction overturned so his
success would be met with great joy in some circles. I have to wonder though if
it isn’t a double edged sword in the sense that it will also embolden and
empower churches which take opposing views on many issues dear to the hearts of
the evangelicals Trump seeks to reward for their support during the election.
How will they feel when an Imam at a nearby mosque calls for followers to vote
for a candidate opposed by their church?
Nominating Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education is an
indirect reward to the evangelicals who supported Trump in that she’s a strong
supporter of school vouchers which she and others want to allow parents to use
in order to fund their child’s tuition to private religious schools. This is a
very contentious issue since having the government directly fund religious
education seems to violate the First Amendment by favoring religion with our
tax dollars. I know a lot of very religious folks feel strongly in favor of
this because it would either save them a lot of money they’re currently
spending or would enable them to send their children to such a school. I have
to wonder if even more voters won’t be up in arms when they learn that those
funds must also be provided to members of other faiths and they see a news
story about a taxpayer funded madrassa right here in the United States just like in Afghanistan .
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