Business and corporate law PDF

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 1
Memorandum
In the USA, many of the civil rights are granted to people, which give them a freedom to live in
the selected manner according to their will and choices. Civil rights can be considered as a right,
which prevents the issue of infringement of freedom of a person, by social organizations,
government, and other private individuals. On 20th January 2017, Donald John Trump became
45th President of USA1. During the very first year of his tenure on the post of president, the
nation has faced many issues related to civil rights. In the USA, some of the major civil rights are
as follow that have faced issues since Donald Trump became president:
LGBT Rights
Voting Rights
Religious Freedom
Racial Justice
Women's Rights and Reproductive Freedom2
The Memorandum presented hereby is focused on one of the civil rights namely religious
freedom. During the last one year, many people faced issues while using their civil right of
religious freedom. Authorities also have granted the decision in against of victims that lead the
issue of infringement of their religious freedom. Moving towards the selected topic for this
Memorandum, which is development in civil rights (Religious freedom) since Donald Trump
1 David Smith, Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th president of the United States the Guardian (2018),
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/20/president-donald-trump-inauguration-sworn-in (last visited Dec
9, 2018).
2 Donald Trump: Year One, American Civil Liberties Union (2018),
https://www.aclu.org/issues/executive-branch/donald-trump-year-one (last visited Dec 1, 2018).

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became president, this is to be stated that recently, in many of the cases, the judiciary has
provided the decision that prevented the practices of years. However, the development is not a
sole result of the judicial decision of a single case, but certain other administrative decisions also
acted as a force behind the same.
According to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, every citizen of US has a right to
practice her/his own religion or no religion.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. ___ (2018)3
The case is very recent and significant in the sector of civil right. The same is significant due to
the decision of the Supreme Court that has made a new development in the sector of the religious
right. The issue of the case has been started when in the year 2012 when the same-sex couple
Craig and Mullins have visited Masterpiece Cakeshop to buy a cake for their wedding return
celebration4. The owner of the Cakeshop, Jack Phillips denied giving the cake to this couple
stating that he is a Christian and his religion do not allow him to prepare cakes for same-sex
couples5. Under state's public accommodations law, the couple has filed a complaint against the
owner of the Cakeshop with Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The commission has considered
the whole case and provided the decision in the favor of Craig and Mullins. In the reasoning of
the decision of the case, Commission stated that giving the decision in the favor of Cakeshop
owner can held an issue of the breach of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act6. This act
3Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 U.S. ___ (2018)
4 Supremecourt.gov (2018), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-111_j4el.pdf (last visited Dec 4,
2018).
5 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, American Civil Liberties Union (2018),
https://www.aclu.org/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-v-colorado-civil-rights-commission (last visited Dec 9, 2018).
6 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission - Global Freedom of Expression, Global Freedom of
Expression (2018), https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-v-craig/ (last

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prohibits discrimination on the part of a business, which is open to the public based on the race,
religion, cast, gender, or sexual orientation of customers. Further, the commission not only
ordered to the cakeshop to provide cakes to the same-sex couples but also instructed the same to
provide 'comprehensive staff training with respect to public accommodations discrimination.
The Cakeshop owner further applied for an appeal to the Supreme Court and the court has denied
to hear the same. Afterward, Masterpiece Cakeshop made a petition to Supreme Court under the
writ of certiorari to reconsider the decision of the commission. This court became agree to hear
the appeal in the year 2017. Trump administration supported the cake shop owner. Although it
has been stated by many of the organization that giving the decision in the favor of Philips can
further be treated as a license to discriminate. After the oral arguments, the Supreme Court
reversed the decision of the commission and provided the final order in the favor of Masterpiece
Cakeshop. The court considered the right of free exercise of religion and hence in a manner the
Supreme Court has set the rights of same-sex couple aside7. This is a very recent development in
the field of religious right where a person is free to exercise his/her religion breaking the
provisions of Anti-discrimination Law and other civil rights (LGBTQ right) of people.
Issue
The decision brought out a lead issue in respect to the equal rights of a same-sex couple and
many of the judgments have presented their dissenting opinion. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and
Sonia Soto mayor wrote their dissenting opinion. The case is also significant for another reason
as earlier to this case; Supreme Court never provided any decision in which the provisions of
visited Dec 9, 2018).
7 Key points from Supreme Court ruling on Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, The
Denver Post (2018), https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/04/masterpiece-cakeshop-gay-wedding-cake-supreme-
court-ruling-key-points/ (last visited Dec 9, 2018).

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Anti-discrimination law have been breached8. The decision given in the masterpiece case has
been used as a reference in many of the subsequent cases, which lead out the issues of
discrimination by the people while using their religious right. After the administration of trump,
this is not the first case where such development has been made in the field of religious rights.
Many of the other cases are there which are pending for the review of Supreme Court where
petitioners are seeking the right of free exercise of their religion despite any discrimination law.
The case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC & Aimee Stephens is relatively similar.
However, the final judgment from the side of the Supreme Court is still pending in this case. In
order to summarize this case, this is to mention that an employer of a person named Aimee
Stephens fired her because of her transgender status9. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has
provided the decision in favour of the employee and thereafter a writ of certiorari is pending with
Supreme Court by the side of the employer, as the employer believes that the decision granted by
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals prevented his right to exercise his religion10.
Policies of Trump Government
Religious freedom is an important civil right of a person, but the recent decisions of Supreme
Court and policies made by Trump administration are creating many issues not only for this civil
right but for another right too. The issue, which has been raised out of the decision of the
Supreme Court in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, is
ignorance of Anti-discrimination law. While discussing the impacts of trump's administration on
8 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Adflegal.org (2018),
http://www.adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/masterpiece-cakeshop-v.-craig (last visited Dec 9, 2018).
9 R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC & Aimee Stephens, American Civil Liberties Union (2018),
https://www.aclu.org/cases/rg-gr-harris-funeral-homes-v-eeoc-aimee-stephens (last visited Dec 9, 2018).
10 Dana Shilling, Complete guide to human resources and the law.