Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted First Amendment religious freedom to the Hobby Lobby Corporation – validating the principle that “corporations are people too’” – many court watchers expect other companies to start demanding rights of citizenship, including the right to adopt children.
One case drawing a lot of attention is the matter of Timmy Rhinegold vs. Palmer Pizza Companies, Inc.
The Poughkeepsie, NY corporation has long struggled to find workers small enough to work in tight places like air conditioning ducts and baking ovens. Like other companies, Palmer has looked at local orphanages as a possible source of labor, but has been thwarted in the courts by child labor laws. With the court’s decision last week, however, Palmer is now asserting its right as a corporate citizen to adopt Rhinegold and put him to work in their kitchens doing “character building chores.”
Rhinegold is seriously undersized for his age, making him highly useful for the kind of work Palmer has in mind.
Meanwhile Rhinegold, who is eight years old, is desperate to stay at the Life O’ Reilly Orphanage Inc. in Poughkeepsie, where he lives with the Sisters of Divine Discipline. He says he hates kitchen work, and prefers scrubbing stone tiles on his hands and knees around the altar at nearby St. Harold’s Cathedral.
Yesterday, the lower courts sided with Palmer. In an emergency ruling issued by the New York State Court of Appeals, Judge Leonard Atwood asserted the principle boldly. “We at the court take very seriously our responsibility to ensure the health and welfare of our most vulnerable citizens,” he said. “But then we thought, ‘what the heck, it can’t be any worse than foster care.’”
If the lower court ruling is upheld, observers expect many more companies to pursue the adoption strategy, and to carve out a space for ‘Human Equity Capital’ on their balance sheets.
