You believe the US Supreme Court should have made a distinction between for-profit and not-for-profit firms in Citizens United and/or Hobby Lobby? Why or why not?

            I think that the Supreme Court of United States should have made a distinction between non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations in the Hobby Lobby. It is actually a landmark decision in the corporate law of US by the Supreme Court which permitted closely held for-profit companies to be exempted from a specific regulation its partners object to religiously, if there is seemingly a less restrictive means of advancing the interest of law, in accordance with the provisions of RFRA or Religious Freedom Restoration of Act. It is actually the first time that the Supreme Court has realized the claim of a for-profit organization of religious belief. However, the decision doesn’t address whether such             organizations are protected by the religious clause’s free-exercise of Fist Amendment of Constitution. The reason why I think that the Supreme Court of United States should have made a distinction between non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations because there is a clear distinction between these companies. Not only their functions but even there structures and practices are dissimilar to each other. Their religious practices are also different form each other and that is the prime reason why the Supreme Court should have differentiated among the two. After all, even the decisions of for-profit companies are made for their own benefit (Sabeti, 2011).

How does a Benefit or B-Corporation differ from a standard for-profit C-Corporation? Why might a business choose to operate as a B instead of a C. Give an example of a business that might benefit from being a B-Corp, and explain explicitly and convincingly why the B charter might be better?

            The term C-corporation refers to a corporation that was normally incorporated or with nonexistent variation from the original one. It is the most typical kind of corporation. Another term for a C-corporation is a regular corporation. Actually, these are the corporations which can be generally owned by almost anyone or even entities. It is double taxes which means that a tax return is filed by the corporation at the ending of the year and shareholders have to report their overall income when a dividend is received by them. In addition, a C-corporation has duties to all of its shareholders (Hiller, 2013).

            It can be said that Benefit or B-corporations are just another variation form the traditional C-corporation and this designation is made at the time of integration or incorporation with State’s Department. When creating the Benefit-Corporation, the organization has to designate it as such in articles of integration and while checking the necessary box when a form from Commonwealth is checked. The biggest difference with a Benefit-Corporation is that each and every year, a B-corporation has to create a Report of Annual Benefit and distribute it to all of its shareholders describing all the efforts for creating a public benefit in the preceding year.  The report has to be filed with State’s Department which is makes it a concern of the public record. The biggest benefit is that Benefit-Corporations are required to continue working for its shareholders. The difference between a shareholder and a stakeholder is everything. A shareholder is no doubt a stakeholder but a stakeholder doesn’t necessarily has to be a shareholder. The Board of Directors for a Benefit-Corporation can seemingly make a decision that would benefit the workers of organization rather than making large profits for shareholders.

            Therefore, Benefit-Corporations are the organizations that undergo a tough process of certification for improving their environmental or social performance. They do not just simply say that they are socially responsible and good businesses like many other businesses. Instead, they are committed to utilizing the business as a force for the good and they are willing to have their practices be vetted independently by another part and make their outcomes as transparent as possible. B-corporations are capable of leading the movement. For instance, B-Corporations are redefining what it really means to be effective in a business as they lead an increasing international movement of individuals as a force for nothing but wellbeing. Through the strength of their collective and one voice, one day all of the organization will compete to stand at the top and the society will be enjoying a more durable and shared prosperity (Kim, et al., 2016).

            For instance, Patagonia as an organization has been sustainable and successful from its inception. They are at the frontline and are proving consistently that sustainability doesn’t harm the business. While being true and green to their basic principles, the organization was capable of growing form a small business to almost a $750 million organization in 2015. In the globe of Benefit-Corporations, the Impact Assessment Score of Patagonia in 2016 was quite well 151 out of 200. For all organizations, 55 is the media score. Ninety percent of Americans exclaim that organizations must not only say that a service or a product is beneficial, they have to prove it as well. For instance, as a hundred percent employee-owned and the fourth biggest craft-brewer in the United States, New Belgium Brewing has seemingly earned their positions as one of the largest sustainable breweries in the country. The Colorado-based brewery, Fort Collins views their sustainability from a completely holistic perspective as they utilize metrics which are based on science for tracking their environmental performance.

            New Belgium actually diverts 99.9 percent of its waste from the landfills and has been capable of reducing their use of water per barrel of beer to the ratio of 3.5:1. If that is not impressive, the score of B-Impact Assessment of New Belgium is 142 out of almost 200 and 55 is the media score for organizations. The tough standards needed to be a B-Corporation demonstrates a great stability which is quite an appealing caliber to the investors. For instance, Plum Organics is a unique B-Corporation. What makes it unique among other B-Corporations is that just a little prior to their reincorporation, the organization was bought by Campbell Soup Co. This seemingly made Plum the first B-Corporation to be owned completely by a public organization in the US. After this purchase, many shoppers were showing hesitance and nervousness but their autonomy was effective managed by Plum. The result was the empowerment of both organizations. The stock price of Campbell continue to increase after the acquisition and Plum was capable of reaching more families throughout the nation (Cooney, et al., 2014).

            Another reason to be a B-Corporation is that when an organization becomes a Benefit-Corporation, their capability of protecting their mission seemingly locked form a legal point of view. The complete value of fulfilling the legal requirements for a Benefit-Corporation is that it seems to bake the sustainability into the structure of an organization as it increases, plans succession, and brings the outside capital by making sure that the mission of a company can survive the new management better. Furthermore, a Benefit-Corporation provides legal protection to officers and directors for considering the interests of not just shareholders but also stakeholders when it comes to making decisions. It creates additional rights for all the shareholders to hold officers and directors responsible for considering these interests. Actually, it is these kinds of requirements which permit organizations like Patagonia to continue doing what they have faith in so that the public can be benefitted from their missions.

References of Law Business and Society

Cooney, K., Koushyar, J., Lee, M. & Murray, H., 2014. Benefit corporation and L3C adoption: a survey. Stanford Social Innovation Review .

Hiller, J. S., 2013. The benefit corporation and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics , 118(2), pp. 287-301.

Kim, S., Karlesky, M. J., Myers, C. G. & Schifeling, T., 2016. Why companies are becoming B corporations. Harvard Business Review , Volume 17.

Sabeti, H., 2011. The for-benefit enterprise. Harvard Business Review , 89(11), pp. 98-104.