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Supreme Court: Obama Admin Can’t Make Religious Groups Obey Pro-Abortion HHS Mandate
Life News ^ | Apr 16, 2015 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 04/17/2015 6:15:32 AM PDT by xzins

The Supreme Court issued an order today preventing the Obama administration from forcing religious groups in Pennsylvania to obey the HHS mandate that requires them to pay for abortion-causing drugs for their employees. This is the fifth time the Supreme Court has rebuked the Obama administration and prevented it from making such a mandate.

In an order issued last night, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito prevented the federal government from enforcing its contraceptive mandate against a range of Pennsylvania-based religious organizations including Catholic Charities and other Catholic schools and social service organizations connected with the Diocese of Erie and the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The Supreme Court has previously protected the Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, Wheaton College, and the University of Notre Dame.

According to the Becket Fund, Justice Alito’s order is similar to the preliminary order Justice Sotomayor provided to the Little Sisters of the Poor on New Year’s Eve in 2013. The group said order requires the government to brief the Supreme Court next week on why it should be allowed to fine these organizations for refusing to distribute abortion-inducing drugs and devices and other contraceptives.

Lori Windham, Senior Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told LifeNews: “How many times must the government lose in court before it gets the message? For years now the government has been claiming that places like Catholic Charities and the Little Sisters of the Poor are not “religious employers” worthy of an exemption.”

“That argument has always been absurd. Every time a religious plaintiff has gone to the Supreme Court for protection from the government’s discriminatory mandate the Court has protected them. That’s what happened to the Little Sisters of the Poor, Wheaton College, Notre Dame, and Hobby Lobby,” Windham continued. “The government really needs to give up on its illegal and unnecessary mandate. The federal bureaucracy has lots of options for distributing contraceptives–they don’t need to coerce nuns and priests to do it for them.”

The Supreme Court will be considering a similar case involving an order of Nashville Dominican nuns and several Tennessee — and Michigan –based Catholic charities at a conference of the Justices on April 24.

A December 2013 Rasmussen Reports poll shows Americans disagree with forcing companies like Hobby Lobby to obey the mandate.

“Half of voters now oppose a government requirement that employers provide health insurance with free contraceptives for their female employees,” Rasmussen reports.

The poll found: “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 38% of Likely U.S. Voters still believe businesses should be required by law to provide health insurance that covers all government-approved contraceptives for women without co-payments or other charges to the patient.

Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree and say employers should not be required to provide health insurance with this type of coverage. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.”

Another recent poll found 59 percent of Americans disagree with the mandate.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: freedom; religion; scotus
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1 posted on 04/17/2015 6:15:32 AM PDT by xzins
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To: All
why it should be allowed to fine these organizations for refusing to distribute abortion-inducing drugs and devices and other contraceptives.

Religious-based groups can't be forced to violate their conscience regarding abortion.

That same logic should seem to cover businesses and homosexual wedding cakes, but it doesn't.

2 posted on 04/17/2015 6:16:44 AM PDT by xzins (Donate to the Freep-a-Thon or lose your ONLY voice. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: xzins

USSC vs. Pen and Phone


3 posted on 04/17/2015 6:19:21 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: xzins

The courts can’t tell the emperor what to do...


4 posted on 04/17/2015 6:20:04 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: Starboard

Or, how many guns & bullets does the USSC have compared to the executive branch.
Obama’s full on lawless, don’t discount him just using force to impose his will regardless of the court or the law.


5 posted on 04/17/2015 6:20:56 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: xzins
Interestingly, some of these groups (Catholic Charities, for example) are going to lose in this case because they cannot demonstrate that they are actually religious organizations.

This is how Catholic Charities lost a similar case in California when it came to a state government mandate involving contraception and/or same-sex "marriage." The court applied a very objective set of standards, and determined that Catholic Charities didn't meet even a bare minimum standard for a "religious-based group." The court basically ruled that the group is a large non-profit business operation with no religious foundation at all.

6 posted on 04/17/2015 6:24:26 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: xzins

This is satire, right? Surely, the Supreme Court wouldn’t overrule The Won.


7 posted on 04/17/2015 6:24:46 AM PDT by moovova
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To: MrB

Obama has long ago passed the point where he should have been impeached and removed. He has no regard for the constitution, the legislative process, or the separation of powers. He is a de facto dictator who does what he wants with his pen and phone. Unfortunately, the “Republican controlled” congress is unwilling to do what is right.


8 posted on 04/17/2015 6:26:08 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: MrB
Or, how many guns & bullets does the USSC have compared to the executive branch.

I hope we can avoid a second civil war, but eventually people are going to start asking how many guns & bullets does the executive branch have compared to the people. The thug in our White House does not have the power to compel people to obey him, not without voluntary cooperation. Given the shocking level of evil in his demands that people violate their religious convictions to pay for birth control and abortion, Dear Leader has lost all legitimacy and now rules only through fear - a fear that may fade over time.

9 posted on 04/17/2015 6:28:26 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Pollster1

The thug in our White House does not have the power to compel people to obey him, not without voluntary cooperation.


The gov’t in general has lost its authoritative legitimacy and now only governs through force because the people don’t physically resist.


10 posted on 04/17/2015 6:30:24 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: xzins

Drats! Foiled again.

11 posted on 04/17/2015 6:36:40 AM PDT by JPG (Lefty reporters doing battle with Sen. Cruz will continue to be chewed-up and spit-out.)
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To: Alberta's Child

And that is why the 1st Amendment has “...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” included, when referring to ones religion.

Unfortunately, our current President, and even some of the current Supreme Court members, do not understand this very simple, straight forward, plain language.


12 posted on 04/17/2015 6:38:10 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (Public sector unions: A & B agreeing on a contract to screw C!)
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To: Starboard
No question, the no-good bum should be unceremoniously tossed out of the WH by the scruff of his neck.

BUT CONSIDER THIS. Dems are gleefully lying-in wait---and are baiting Republicans into impeaching Obama----b/c they know "evil Republicans" impeaching Obama would immediately turn loser Democrats into "victims."

Hillary would sail to victory------posing as an "unfortunate helpless woman" subjugated by sexist Republican men."

Shameless Democrats make their political fortunes as "victims"....and attaching themselves to voting blocs they make into "victims."

13 posted on 04/17/2015 6:38:20 AM PDT by Liz (Another Clinton administration? Are you nuts?)
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To: xzins
Murderers can always find a way around the laws.

Oxytocin is that feel good hormone that bonds a child to his or her mother. But never mind that. Researchers in Hawaii are recruiting girls as young as 14 to participate in second trimester abortions, where the preborn baby is 18-24 weeks gestation, in order to test whether or not oxytocin can reduce bleeding in mothers during and after abortion. The study is being conducted by the University of Hawaii and the University of Washington in Seattle – both public universities, which leads to the obvious question: is the government funding this study?

14 posted on 04/17/2015 6:44:19 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: xzins
This is going to have to be fought out for each and every employer. And then the ones who won their cases will have it imposed on them again and will have to go again to court. The courts cannot prevent the executive from doing it over and over again. The courts can't really even prevent the executive from ignoring the court.

"John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it ..."

15 posted on 04/17/2015 6:46:38 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: MrB

His agencies already admit they follow his rules, not the law.


16 posted on 04/17/2015 6:47:19 AM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: ExTxMarine

> Unfortunately, our current President, and even some of the
> current Supreme Court members, do not understand this very
> simple, straight forward, plain language.

Oh, they understand it just fine.

They reject it and refuse to comply with it.

They are revolutionaries. The “old order” does not apply to them, neither will they enforce it. It is only useful insomuch as they can torture it to justify their own ends.

“But they are sworn to uphold it,” you say.

What does an oath mean to an atheist?


17 posted on 04/17/2015 6:47:29 AM PDT by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it)
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To: Liz

Unfortunately the real victim is the country. I agree with a lot of what you say but it is very frustrating to watch the Republicans do absolutely nothing while Obama goes about taking the country down. I’m just afraid that he is going to push the envelope even further during the time remaining in his term. He can do a lot more damage in that relatively short time.


18 posted on 04/17/2015 6:48:36 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Alberta's Child

That is why I ceased giving money to CC long ago. Some CC money has gone to Planned Parenthood, even.


19 posted on 04/17/2015 6:48:49 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: xzins

BTTT!


20 posted on 04/17/2015 6:49:08 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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