The thing you’re not addressing is the way that the Hobby Lobby case is a wedge into the deep fissure between capitalists and social conservatives. That marriage of convenience is on the rocks because of irreconcilable differences like this one.

The wealthy are learning it’s not so easy to dismount a raging tiger after you’ve hopped aboard and fed it raw meat for several decades.

When I say “eat the wealthy!”, I mean I’m rooting for the tiger.

Some corporations do adopt formal values statements that say they respect the environment, or their employees, etc. But those values always take a back seat to profit. They have to, or the stockholders would fire the foolishly idealistic CEO.

That’s why the benefits corporation, was recently invented. A “b-corp” is a for-profit corporation that’s allowed to put the public good first for real, not just as a PR trick; and keeping the shareholders fat is allowed to be a secondary concern. Another way to state it is that the shareholders judge the company’s performance not in financial terms, but in terms of how well it meets specified goals that benefit society in general. Shareholders can’t sue for not getting paid off, only for being disappointed when the company doesn’t honor its lofty ideals.

The ironic thing about a b-corp is that corporations, once upon a time, were chartered by national or state legislatures to act in the public interest, for fixed terms that required them to periodically prove that they had indeed operated in the public interest. Which is pretty much what a modern b-corp has to do. The way we used to keep corporations on a short leash in the 19th century is about the only aspect of that century I’d be happy to see return.

This case will not be resolved on legal niceties or weighty constitutional issues. This is a power struggle between those who want to maintain corporate hegemony and those who want to deny it to them. It will be decided in the press and in Congress, not in the courts, unless the courts are stacked, and they are doing their best to do that by blocking agency and judicial appointments. If that battle is lost at the Federal level, it will be moved to state legislatures. Its already getting to the point where state legislatures are pretty much ignoring Federal Law when it suits them, or their trailer trash constituencies. And don’t think subtle issues of legal contradiction will arise. This is about raw power. They will do whatever it takes to get their way.

After all. What’s the point of having money if you can’t use it to buy whatever you want? To paraphrase Kris; “Freedom’s just another word for doing whatever the fuck you can afford.”

If you want a preview of how it will turn out, take a look at how abortion in particular, women’s reproductive health in general, Obamacare, voter suppression, voting and civil rights, campaign contributions–funding and reporting, union busting, immigration and gun laws are being litigated and redefined. They’re putsching now because there is a demographic time bomb ticking away, and if they don’t win now, they may never get another chance. They know that, they are desperate, and they will do whatever it takes.

Stand by for heavy rolls.

It would seem that would set a corporate value rather than a shareholder value.