Dana Milbank is spot on in this piece.

In Hobby Lobby ruling, the Supreme Court uses a ‘fiction’ – The Washington Post

In its last day in session, the high court not only affirmed corporate personhood but expanded the human rights of corporations, who by some measures enjoy more protections than mortals …

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the much-anticipated Hobby Lobby decision. “Protecting the free-exercise rights of closely held corporations thus protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control them.”

Alito’s ruling notably did not protect the rights of people employed by Hobby Lobby. They can now be denied contraceptives they were supposed to receive as part of their employee health plan — because the craft chain’s owners object to certain forms of birth control required under Obamacare. … [mjh: What happens if a corporation’s owners object to transfusions or other emergency medical care?]

There was a certain risk in having Alito deliver the 5-to-4 opinion defending corporate personhood, because his mannerisms are strikingly robotic for a human. …

Ginsburg, in her dissent, wrote: “Until this litigation, no decision of this Court recognized a for-profit corporation’s qualification for a religious exemption. .?.?. The exercise of religion is characteristic of natural persons, not artificial legal entities. As Chief Justice Marshall observed nearly two centuries ago, a corporation is ‘an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.’?” …

So Alito … reverted to the “Dictionary Act definition of ‘person,’?” which includes corporations. (The Dictionary Act also … says the words “?‘insane person’ shall include every idiot.”) … [zing!]

Alito’s ruling was, Ginsburg said, an “expansive notion of corporate personhood.” She invoked the writing of former justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote that corporations “have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires.” [mjh: Corporations do have a single desire: an insatiable appetite for profit above all else, including the well-being of employees or customers.]

In Hobby Lobby ruling, the Supreme Court uses a ‘fiction’ – The Washington Post