liberty of conscience

This will be the next front in the Obamacare war against liberty of conscience: “The next big Obamacare question of whether religious schools can duck the birth control mandate got another federal appeals court hearing on Tuesday.” The more or less short version: some religious institutions have strong objections to providing coverage for certain forms of birth control that are currently mandated by Obamacare. The Obama administration has created an alternative method to cover such things, in case of sincere religious objection by schools, religious institutions, and or other nonprofits: and the Obama administration obviously feels that this is sufficient.

The problem, of course, is that religious groups usually have religious reasons for rejecting any particular drug or procedure. They also usually have strong rules against aiding and abetting behaviors that the religious group consider sinful; and so they’re refusing to play along with the Obama administration. And, thanks to the Hobby Lobby case and the federal RFRA, religious groups’ arguments have a bit more bite to them. Continue reading Obamacare’s rather foolish birth control mandate gets another day in court.

Good news for the craft store chain:

In a health care decision giving hope to opponents of the federal birth-control coverage mandate, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hobby Lobby stores won’t have to start paying millions of dollars in fines next week for not complying with the requirement.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver decided the Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain can proceed with its case and won’t be subject to fines in the meantime.

The reprieve gives Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. more time to argue in a lower court that for-profit businesses — not just currently exempted religious groups — should be allowed to seek an exception if the law violates their religious beliefs.

Background here: basically, for “birth-control” read “‘morning-after’ and ‘week-after’ pill,” both of which are abortifacients in the opinion of the owners* and thus anathema. Hobby Lobby, which is not a franchise, is looking at hefty fines for this position; the company has been adamant about not paying for what they consider to be state-sanctioned murder**, and now that they don’t have to worry about a deadline before they’d be forced to pay an estimated $1.3 million/a day while fighting this ruling they’ll likely be litigating this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Continue reading Hobby Lobby will not be fined for pursuing liberty of conscience contraception case.