Having completed our study of the "Establishment " clause ,we today discussed the 'free exercise clause. " Olivia provided a good definition of the scope and meaning of the clause and from there we discussed the clause's application to specific situations such as the right of the Amish to refuse to send their children to public school, the right of atheists not to salute the flag and recite the pledge, and last the right of a religious employer to refuse to provide birth control pills to employees who wish them notwithstanding the dictates of the Affordable Care Act. This last instance involves the facts of Burwell v Hobby Lobby which Olivia reviewed and discussed. We reviewed how the court determined that for profit corporations are treated as "persons" for the purpose of the "free exercise " clause and the Court therefore , in a narrow 5-4 vote, held that corporations can not be forced to violate their religious beliefs if their owners equate birth control pills with promoting abortion. According to the Court, the beliefs of the employees who are deprived of the law's benefits are not material. We discussed this controversial decision in terms of fairness to employees and in the context of whether the decision appears to encourage a religious belief in contravention of the Establishment Clause. For homework, I assigned reading about the Supreme Court case appearing to uphold the right of a bakery to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple based on the bakery's owner's religious beliefs.