Free Republic

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. CST the oral arguments will commence in the second significant challenge to come before the Supreme Court concerning the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In one of the most consequential cases of the year there are two sweeping questions that potentially will be answered by the Court. Are private, for-profit corporations afforded the right to “freely exercise” religion? If so, to what extent does that prevent government intrusion? The two cases being heard, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, raise issues concerning the First Amendment’s free exercise clause and whether the...

Clinton nostalgists look back on the occasionally picayune controversies of that time — State of the Union endorsements of school uniforms — and conclude that such trivia were a sign of national health, of things being so good that we had nothing more important to debate. Subsequent events ranging from 9/11 to the mortgage meltdown suggest that there was rather more impressing business to be taken care of in the 1990s, but our political leaders were too short-sighted to appreciate it. Similarly, the fact that the Supreme Court is being asked to review the manner in which Hobby Lobby manages...

The U.S. Justice Department is telling the Supreme Court that killing a human embryo by preventing the embryo from implanting in his or her mother’s uterus is not an “abortion” and, thus, drugs that kill embryos this way are not “abortion-inducing” drugs. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. The crux of the administration’s argument in this case is that when Christians form a corporation they give up the right to freely exercise their religion—n.b. live according to their Christian beliefs—in the way they run their business. It is in...

An excellent political analysis of the law cited by Hobby Lobby in its objection to complying with Obamacare's (officially known as the ACA) birth control provision was published by msnbc. Fox News made a glancing reference to the law, known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), preferring to confine its article to current issues versus historical intent. I went back to the language of the law itself. In an aside, it is stunning that the law being used to unravel possibly a large swath of Obamacare's mandate is less than two pages long.  The ACA itself claims...

Bishop Egan“When people are not in communion with the Catholic Church on such a central thing as the value of life of the unborn child and also in terms of the teachings of the church on marriage and family life – they are voting in favour of same-sex marriage – then they shouldn’t be receiving Holy Communion.”.Bishop Egan explained that rather than a punitive measure, the denial of Holy Communion is “always an act of mercy.”  It is done, he said, “with the hope and prayer that that person can be wooed back into full communion with the Church.”“Nobody is...

NORMAN, Okla. -- On Thursday, in a clear indicator of the importance of the case Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., the Supreme Court issued an order expanding the time allotted for oral argument in front of the Court to 90 minutes instead of the previously appropriated 60 minutes. Representing Hobby Lobby will be who Business Insider has termed the “LeBron James of Lawyers”, Paul D. Clement. He is a veteran of the Supreme Court with recent appearances in the challenge to the “individual mandate” portion of the ACA,as well as representing the Republican House of Representatives in the Defense...

President Obama’s signature healthcare law is headed back to the Supreme Court in a high-stakes case that could redefine the limits of religious freedom in the United States. The high court on Tuesday will hear challenges to ObamaCare’s contentious “birth control mandate,” which requires companies to offer contraceptive services to workers as part of their insurance coverage. If successful, the challenge could peel away a significant portion of the mandate, potentially affecting preventive health coverage for millions of women and striking a major blow to the law itself. But the court’s ruling could also have far-reaching implications for religious liberty...

President Barack Obama's policies “have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Cardinal Raymond Burke,head of the highest court at the Vatican, said in a recent interview. Cardinal Burke added that Obama wants to restrict religious freedom and force the individuals, outside of his or her place of worship,“to act against his rightly-formed conscience,even in the most serious of moral questions.”… “It is true that the policies of the president of the United States of America have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization. He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.” “Now...

Next week, probably the most egregious regulatory measure under this administration gets its time in the Supreme Court: The HHS abortifacient/contraception/sterilization mandate.As most people know, the mandate was initiated on January 20, 2012, and sparked an immediate backlash. Many people were bothered morally because of the anti-life components of the mandate, while organizations across the country were disturbed at how it failed to offer an appropriately broad religious exemption from the mandate.Despite several “compromises,”most of which were largely accounting gimmicks, there have been dozens of lawsuits by non-profit and for-profit organizations. According to the Alliance Defense Freedom (ADF), which represents...

When Hobby Lobby makes its case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, conservative Christians won't be the only ones paying attention. After a year and a half of opposing the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate, the evangelical-owned craft store chain has become shorthand for the corporate fight for religious liberty—one that concerns not only Obamacare critics, or fellow Christians who worry that certain contraception methods are abortifacients, but now, Americans overall. It's expected to be the most high-profile case the Supreme Court reviews this year. CT can refresh your memory. [Infographics below.] CNN called Hobby Lobby's...

Next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments concerning constitutional challenges to Obamacare’s contraception mandate brought by Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties … Neither company objects to birth control, per se. Indeed, both provide coverage to their employees for most types of contraception. Yet civilization as we know it will collapse if the justices rule in their favor, according to the increasingly shrill prognostications of panicky liberals. Such a decision, progressives shriek, would constitute a victory for the dark forces behind the “war on women,” erode employee protections against discrimination, and dramatically reduce access to health care...

Billionaire David Green's success story could come straight from Silicon Valley. He started his business in a garage in 1970. Through hard work and innovation, he built a business that employs more than 13,000 full-time workers. He determined to treat his employees well, providing health care and setting a higher in-house minimum wage for staff. Here's where Green departs from the standard Bay Area billionaire success story: He's a devout Christian whose Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and an affiliated Christian bookstore chain are headquartered in Oklahoma. His family controls the business. He's the CEO; a son is president; a daughter...

The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, which concerns religious objections to HHS regulations. To be precise, should religious objections prevail under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act against HHS regulations that require employers to include coverage for contraception in their health-insurance plans? But that is only the surface question. Not far below it lurk profound dangers of specialization and exclusion — the risks that the Court will recognize only partial rights in specialized organizations and that it will ignore how the political playing field is slanted against religious Americans. SPECIALIZATION Can government treat specialized organizations...

"Christian Leaders to Obama: Thanks for Standing Up for Religious Freedom Abroad; Please Protect Religious Freedom in US Too" Ten Christian leaders sent a Wednesday letter to President Barack Obama, thanking him for his National Prayer Breakfast speech in which he called for expanding religious freedom abroad. They also urged him to pay greater attention to his own policies that are infringing upon the religious freedom of his own citizens. "As religious leaders we write to express our appreciation to you for lifting up the issue of international religious liberty in your recent address at the National Prayer Breakfast," they...

When President Barack Obama said he planned to "fundamentally transform" the United States, he wasn't referring only to spreading the wealth around or even to conforming our foreign-trade regulations to the dictates of globalist busybodies. He is also working openly and covertly, through administrative regulations and supremacist judges' decisions, to transform us into a sanitized secular nation. The cutting edge of Obama's war on religion will come into public view on March 25, when the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the Obama administration's attempt to force private companies, such as Hobby Lobby, to cover abortion-inducing drugs for...

An administration as image-conscious as this one should have been more careful in its choice of antagonists. The Little Sisters of the Poor is a Catholic charity providing care to the poorest elderly in a hospice-like setting. They serve 13,000 people in 31 countries, and operate 30 homes in the United States. Their faith calls them to treat every person, no matter how old, disabled or poor as if he or she were "Jesus himself." There is no religious test for admission, only that you be poor and in need of care at the end of life. Think thousands of...

A group of influential Christian theologians and pastors announced on Wednesday their support of businesses like Hobby Lobby who are fighting against the HHS contraception mandate. In a 46-page amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), they argued that the mandate violates the First Amendment rights of Christians who believe that all work is sacred. The list of 38 signatories includes pastor Rick Warren, Bishop Harry Jackson, theologian Wayne Grudem, author Ravi Zacharias, and other Christian influencers. The convening organizations listed on the brief includes Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Coalition of African American Pastors, and...

In a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, 19 Democratic senators are siding with the Obama administration against evangelical Christian businessmen who argue that paying for their employees’ birth control, a requirement under Obamacare, violates their company’s religious freedom. The senators—five of them women—argue in their “friend of the court” brief that the owners of the Oklahoma-based crafts store chain Hobby Lobby are not exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate simply because some forms of birth control offend their religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby’s owners, David Green and his family, are suing the federal...

arguing that "secular" businesses should not be exempt from the mandate. The 19 senators planned to file a brief before the court, which is still weeks away from considering the closely watched case. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who planned to make her case on the Senate floor, adamantly defended the Obama administration's side. "What's at stake in this case before the Supreme Court is whether a CEO's personal beliefs can trump a woman's right to access free or low-cost contraception under the Affordable Care Act," she said in prepared remarks.

"...We have witnessed an ominous trend in the United States. Classical, faithful Christians who uphold the unbroken teaching of the Church and the scriptures concerning the dignity of every human life and the truth concerning marriage as solely between one man and one woman and formative of family, are being squeezed out of commerce..."