Ipse Dixit

In this episode, Catherine A. Hardee, Associate Professor of Law at California Western School of Law, discusses her article in progress, "Schrödinger’s Corporation: The Paradox of Religious Sincerity In Heterogenous Corporations." Hardee begins by describing how the Supreme Court has looked to the religious beliefs of shareholders in order to determine whether a business corporation has a "sincere" religious belief for the purpose of religious exemptions. She then explains why this test creates tensions with principles of corporate governance, and could enable corporations to "game the system," by adding minority shareholders with religious beliefs. She outlines an alternative test that would consider more factors, and thereby enable courts to reach more accurate outcomes. And she argues that it will be a better compromise between competing values of religious liberty and corporate governance. Hardee's scholarship is available on SSRN.