California questions corporations' religious rights

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review the new federal health care law's requirements for contraceptive insurance, California Attorney General Kamala Harris is urging the court not to let corporate executives invoke their religious beliefs to deny birth-control coverage to female employees.

Owners who have protected themselves from personal liability by forming corporations should not be allowed to "shield their companies from regulatory obligations based on alleged injuries to their individual religious beliefs," lawyers in Harris' office, representing California and 10 other states, told the court.

Access to contraceptives, the state lawyers said, "is critical to the health of women and infants, women's economic and social well-being, and women's opportunities to participate fully in society."

But critics of the law's contraceptive mandate say the government should not be allowed to require religious objectors, including company owners, to pay for insurance they morally oppose.

Because many people, in California, think individuals who no right to religious freedom.