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Big ObamaCare setback: court ruling lets church challenges proceed [Media ignores]
Investors Business Daily ^ | Dec 13, 2012 | Andrew Malcolm

Posted on 12/13/2012 11:02:20 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o

Here's an encouraging update on the nationwide legal challenges to ObamaCare by religious institutions that will be forced to provide insurance coverage for such things as abortion drugs, birth control and sterilizations that violate their beliefs.

This story is a week old, actually. Strangely, you haven't seen any real coverage of this development in mainstream media, perhaps because it concerns a crucial legal setback for Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius in a New York federal court.

As is Eric Holder's style when his Justice Department is challenged, he attempts not to argue the typically weak legal issues he has but to challenge the standing or timing of the challengers. That's worked in some of the 42 religious lawsuits filed over ObamaCare's pending implementation that the churches say violate their constitutional protections for religious freedom.

But that strategy did not work in the Eastern District Federal Courtroom of Judge Brian Cogan. For the first time, a federal judge allowed this constitutional challenge of ObamaCare to proceed.

The Obama administration had sought to have the case by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York thrown out because of its so-called "temporary safe harbor" provision.

That was a statement last winter by Health and Human Services that it would not seek to enforce or prosecute religious institutions for failing to provide such controversial coverage until later next year while steps to address their concerns were developed.

There have been no concrete attempts made to provide such steps. And privately, now skeptical church officials confide the president had previously assured them even before his February news conference that their worries were already addressed, which they were not.

Judge Cogan completely rejected Obama's argument...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackout; catholic; hhs; lawsuit; obamacare
(Continued from above)

... calling the administration's punitive steps against the religious institutions an "actual and well-founded fear" that is "looming and certain" much like "a speeding train that is coming towards plaintiffs."

He chided the administration as having had ample time to address the institutions' concerns already. And then Judge Cogan let forth with this:

"The First Amendment does not require citizens to accept assurances from the government that, if the government later determines it has made a misstep, it will take ameliorative action.

"There is no, 'Trust us, changes are coming' clause in the Constitution.

"To the contrary, the Bill of Rights itself, and the First Amendment in particular, reflect a degree of skepticism towards governmental self-restraint and self-correction."

New York, one of the country's largest archdioceses, has estimated it would incur upwards of $200 million in fines and penalties for not providing the required free coverage to the 9,000 employees covered by its insurance plans.

So concerned were church officials that they issued a special pre-election letter to all Catholics, as we wrote here. It didn't suggest support for any specific candidate but reminded congregants of the faith's moral precepts and urged them to vote their conscience.

Since those precepts oppose abortion, for instance, the choice was pretty clearly not the fellow forcing the church to fund such insurance coverage.

A puzzled Cardinal Dolan wrote to parishioners this week:

"Did you hear about the decision last week by U.S. District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan in the lawsuit brought by the Archdiocese of New York.......against the administration for the unconstitutional HHS mandate?

"You probably did not, as there seems to have been virtually no mention of the decision — in favor of the archdiocese, by the way — in any local newspaper or on television.

"As far as I can tell, and I’ve looked rather carefully, there hasn’t even been a story in the New York Times, which couldn’t wait to publish an editorial this past October, admonishing the bishops, when a federal judge in Missouri found for the administration and dismissed a similar case brought by a private, for-profit, mining company."

Well, as a first step, at least now the Cardinal has our version to read and distribute.

1 posted on 12/13/2012 11:02:24 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Last year, when 42 Church-related organizations launched the biggest law offensive in U.S. history by filing suit against the HHS in all the federal courts simltaneously, the LSM didn’t even cover it. Now some of those suits are advancing successfully through the federal system, and -— as Andrew Malcolm notes -— nobody has reported on it even a week later.

I just put this up on FR to prevent it sinking out of sight down the Memory Hole forever.

You know, it’s like a Third World Country, except that the submissive press doesn’t even have to be threatened by the regime. They jump right into their harnesses like sled dogs, eager to do as they’re told, pausing only long enough to lick the Master’s hands.


2 posted on 12/13/2012 11:09:56 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


3 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:14 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


4 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:14 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


5 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:14 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


6 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:14 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


7 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:22 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

So what is the solution? Sue the press?


8 posted on 12/13/2012 11:19:31 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Pikachu_Dad

Sorry about the multiple replies


9 posted on 12/13/2012 11:21:57 AM PST by Pikachu_Dad (Impeach Sen Quinn)
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To: Pikachu_Dad
Yeah. They need to be

Sued.

Booed.

Chewed.

Spewed, and

Tattooed.

(To answer your question.)

10 posted on 12/13/2012 11:29:20 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.)
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To: Pikachu_Dad

I say sue the press!


11 posted on 12/13/2012 11:31:19 AM PST by HereInTheHeartland (Witty saying goes here...)
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To: Pikachu_Dad

I say we take off and sue the press from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.


12 posted on 12/13/2012 11:32:54 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Sue the enemedia? but they are just doing their job! Zimmerman might have a chance but I don’t think you can sue just because the noos didn’t pick up your story. It would be great if you could...I’ve thought long and hard on the subject of how to neutralize the bias...


13 posted on 12/13/2012 12:06:56 PM PST by Gasshog
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To: Gasshog

The only way to neutralize the bias is to neutralize the biased.


14 posted on 12/13/2012 12:20:05 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Lurker

“The only way to neutralize the bias is to neutralize the biased”, or at least neuter them.


15 posted on 12/13/2012 1:32:40 PM PST by 05 Mustang GT Rocks
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Wow, that really is news, good news that was supressed. Even the WSJ was calling the church law suit against Obamacare a long shot.


16 posted on 12/13/2012 1:37:45 PM PST by Eva
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To: Mrs. Don-o

so if ANY business takes a conscience objection to a provision of obamacare then that part is blue lined out.

it is going to become a death of a thousand cuts for obamacare.


17 posted on 12/14/2012 8:26:53 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Liberals have defeated the fourth amendment in the name of Homeland inSecurity. Now they want to conquer the first and second amendments. I pray judges don’t let them do this.


18 posted on 12/14/2012 9:40:24 AM PST by SaraJohnson
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