In a new article from Melissa Attias at CQ Roll Call “Contraception Case Spurs Legal Briefs From Dozens of Members of Congress” our Legal Advisory Director Ron Fein was quoted in regards to our new amicus brief we submitted in the Conestoga Wood v. Sebelius Supreme Court Case.

The segment reads,

The case has also drawn notice from campaign finance activists, who object to what they call the Supreme Court’s emerging doctrine of corporate personhood. “Corporations are not people, and they cannot exercise religion under the meaning of the First Amendment,” said Ron Fein, legal director of the watchdog group Free Speech For People in a Tuesday conference call with reporters. Fein cast the case as part of a “troubling, long-term trend” in the wake of the high court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling, which freed corporations and unions to spend unrestricted money in campaigns. He cited mounting corporate bids to seek exemptions from state and federal laws on First Amendment grounds. Free Speech For People filed its own amicus brief this week in the contraception case, arguing that exempting Conestoga Wood Specialties from the law’s reproductive health mandate would set a dangerous precedent. If the challenge is successful, the group warned, a corporation could seek religious exemptions from any number of health care, worker protection or environmental regulations. “Our brief urges the court to nip this theory in the bud,” said Fein. “Because extending the constitutional protections of religious freedoms to corporations wouldn’t protect freedom, it would diminish it.”

The full article will be linked to once available on Roll Call.