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Celebrating the Hobby Lobby decision (AP)
For this episode, I’m taking on just one topic; the “Hobby Lobby” case decided by the Supreme Court.
On Monday, June 30th, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision saying that companies that are “closely held”, as Hobby Lobby is, could opt out of the new ObamaCare requirement that they cover contraceptives for women, including drugs that induce abortions. Those on the Right were cheering this win for religious freedom, but it occurred to me that, since the vote was 5-4, we’re just one Supreme Court justice away from losing our religion, er, religious freedom. The ruling from the court did not couch it in First Amendment terms, per se, but make no mistake; had it gone the other way, it would have been a precedent for continued chipping away at this constitutional protecting. The whole idea that religion is something you can only practice in your house of worship – or “freedom of worship”, as it has be redefined by the Clintons and others on the Left – is what has brought us to this point.
What kinds of people or government consider religious liberty something to avoid? There are some countries out there that actively do that, but I’m not so sure we want to live in them.
Another part of the Hobby Lobby ruling you may not have heard about; a more strong affirmation that corporations can indeed have a religious component to them. From a story on Politico, “The court appeared to reject, 7-2, the Obama administration’s argument that for-profit companies cannot assert religious rights under RFRA.” RFRA stands for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law created by Democrats, which had massive bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Clinton. Just remember that when you hear Democrats complain about the ruling based on a law they supported.
As previous guest to Consider This, Dale Franks, put it, “If you don’t want your employer making decisions about your health, then you probably shouldn’t ask them to pay for it.”
A couple other bits of information typically lost among the snarkiness coming from the Left include the fact that Hobby Lobby employees make significantly more than the minimum wage; $14 an hour is the minimum for full-time, and $9.50 for part time. So what contraceptives won’t be covered, they can certainly afford them on their own.
But the other not-so-well-known bit of info is that Hobby Lobby insurance already covers 16 out of 20 contraceptive methods on the ObamaCare list. The other 4 are generally after-the-fact, morning-after type that are, in the belief of the Green family that owns the company, tantamount to abortion. You want to prevent conception? They’re with you. You want to end a life? Eh, not so much.
Postscript: During the episode, you’ll hear me talk about some information from a ReligionNews.com article. In it, they cite a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, released in April that said that a majority (55 percent) said yes, a for-profit business owner with religious objections to birth control be subject to the requirement, “even if it violates their owners’ personal religious beliefs”. However, I’ve recently seen a Weekly Standard article noting that a new Rasmussen poll finds that 49 percent of American voters support a religious exemption to the federal government’s contraception mandate, while 39 percent oppose such an exemption. They’re polls, so they really just measure attitudes at a point in time, and who knows what might have changed between April and June. Just an FYI.
Mentioned links:
Five takeaways from the Hobby Lobby case
SCOTUS sides with Hobby Lobby on birth control
Want birth control? Go buy it. Nobody is stopping you.
When you find out how much Hobby Lobby pays their employees tell every liberal you know
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