Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — In a significant victory amid a push for paid sick time laws around the country, city lawmakers voted Wednesday to make businesses provide the benefit to an estimated 1 million workers who don't have it now. Saying they hoped that requiring sick leave in the nation's largest metropolis would set an example, City Council members positioned New York to become the most populous place to approve such a law during a campaign that has scored several victories but also a number of defeats. A mayoral veto is expected, but so is an override.

Obama admin. surrenders in HHS mandate case against Bible publisher WASHINGTON, May 6, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the government’s own request, a federal appellate court Friday dismissed the Obama administration’s appeal of an order that stopped the president from enforcing the HHS birth control mandate against a Bible publisher. The administration’s retreat marks the first total appellate victory on a preliminary injunction in any abortion pill mandate case. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Tyndale House Publishers say the administration is apparently nervous about trying to defend its position that a Bible publisher is not religious enough for a religious exemption...

In January 2012, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a policy for implementation of the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as "Obamacare") dealing with the provisions for "preventative services for women" to be covered under all employers' health plans. This policy, which came to be known as the HHS Mandate, set forth requirements for nearly all employers to provide coverage of prescription contraceptive drugs and devices approved by the FDA, including sterilization procedures and abortion-causing drugs (sometimes called "emergency contraceptives"). While the HHS Mandate provided for a religious exemption, this allowance - in the form...

Hobby Lobby. Courtesy of the Becket Fund. Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2013 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian-owned craft giant Hobby Lobby will be able to make its appeal against the federal contraception mandate before a full federal panel of nine judges, rather than the usual three. “Full court review is reserved only for the most serious legal questions,� explained Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in a press release on March 29. The Becket Fund is representing the owners of Hobby Lobby in court.  Duncan said that the decision to grant a full...

A few minutes after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision upholding President Obama’s health care law last summer, a senior adviser to Mitch McConnell walked into the Senate Republican leader’s office to gauge his reaction. McConnell was clearly disappointed, and for good reason. For many conservatives, the decision was the death knell in a three-year fight to defeat reforms that epitomized everything they thought was wrong with Obama’s governing philosophy. But where some saw finality, McConnell saw opportunity — and still does. Sitting at his desk a stone’s throw from the Senate chamber, McConnell turned to the aide and,...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters present at her weekly Capitol Hill news conference to “get excited” about newly elected Pope Francis. While discussing with Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday her experience watching the selection of the new pope, Pelosi said: “Isn’t it exciting? I think so. Get excited. This is big, this is big.” Earlier in the press briefing, Pelosi said she was happy to hear Pope Francis chose his name based on Saint Francis of Assisi, for whom Pelosi’s home city of San Francisco is named. …

A group of House Republicans said Tuesday that a bill to fund the federal government should include provisions targeting the contraception mandate in President Obama's healthcare law. GOP lawmakers reintroduced a bill Tuesday to repeal the contraception mandate. They also pressed their party's leaders to roll back the provision as part of a continuing resolution later this month to keep the federal government operating. "This attack on religious freedom demands immediate congressional action," the 14 lawmakers wrote. "Nothing short of a full exemption for both nonprofit and for-profit entities will satisfy the demands of the Constitution and common sense." The...

Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief. So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a...

For years, ObamaCare critics focused on its least popular feature — the mandate that everyone buy insurance — taking their fight all the way to the Supreme Court. But as ObamaCare's official launch date approaches, even its backers are beginning to admit that the law could actually create powerful incentives for millions of people and thousands of businesses to drop their coverage, despite the mandate. There is growing concern, for example, that the law's market reforms will cause a huge "rate shock," particularly for those young and healthy.

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence). – Augustine The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that prudence is the auriga virtutum, the “charioteer of virtues.” It’s “right reason in action,” the...

“The decline in the country’s fourth quarter GDP isn’t President Obama’s fault,” says Press Secretary Jay Carney. “If you want to blame someone, blame the Republicans.” It is Carney’s contention that “opposition to the President’s agenda is what is causing uncertainty in the markets. As anyone in business can tell you, uncertainty discourages investment and hiring.” “What the country needs is unity,” Carney advised. “The sooner everyone gets in step and marches to the same beat the sooner we will be able to pull the nation out of the recession we inherited from George Bush.” “The Republicans in Congress need...

In the olden days miners brought canaries into mines because canaries were very sensitive to toxic fumes and would keel over quickly, giving the miners time to escape before they were rendered unconscious. The HHS mandate is serving a similar function in modern American culture. It's making it clear that liberals believe in an all-powerful government, not the government empowered by the people that is enshrined in the Constitution. Historically in America, the government has rarely collided with the religious beliefs of even extreme groups. A few exceptions, such as Mormon polygamy, were based on common values shared by the...

A federal court delivered a serious blow to the Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel agenda, ruling that the agency exceeded its authority by mandating refiners use cellulosic biofuels, which isn’t commercially available. The court sided with the country’s chief oil and gas lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, in striking down the 2012 EPA mandate that would have forced refineries to purchase more than $8 million in credits for 8.65 million of gallons of the cellulosic biofuel. However, none of the biofuel is commercially available. “[W]e agree with API that EPA’s 2012 projection of cellulosic biofuel production was in excess of...

Hobby Lobby, the Christian craft company, has been forced to alter its employee health insurance plan in order to avoid millions of dollars in fines each and every day it refuses to comply with the HHS mandate.The mandate compels religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions for their employees in their health insurance plan. Late Thursday, in a statement, Hobby Lobby attorney Peter Dobelbower said the company will shift the plan year for employee health insurance that will delay the implementation date of the plan from January 1, so it does not coincide with...

Did you watch the Notre Dame v. Alabama, BCS Championship game this week? Alabama beat Notre Dame 42-12. It wasn’t even close. 42-12, now that’s a big win. You know who didn’t have an overwhelming victory? President Obama. His margin was significantly closer than the Alabama- Notre Dame game and it was a substantially closer than four years ago. So while there is no doubt that this year was a disappointing outcome for conservatives, the close election results mean that the Left lacks the mandate to enact the president’s liberal agenda. There has been a huge victory in a recent...

The Internal Revenue Service warned employers in a new regulatory proposal not to come up with clever schemes to avoid Obamacare’s employer health insurance mandate. The IRS said it would soon issue “anti-abuse rules” to discourage employers from taking advantage of any regulatory loopholes. “The Treasury Department and the IRS are aware of various structures being considered under which employers might use temporary staffing agencies (or other staffing agencies)… to evade application of section 4980H [the employer insurance mandate],” the IRS said in a proposed regulatory announcement issued December 28. …

Normally I'd be inclined to run something like this on a Sunday, when I like to explore more faith-based topics. However, today is Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, where consumers who support the Christian ownership's stand against the HHS mandate that attempts to impose a highly restrictive definition of religious expression can put their money where their mouths are. Since I don't really have a hobby at the moment, I'll instead offer a passage from the open letter written by Hobby Lobby CEO David Green, who explains why he's decided to spend a lot of money and risk even more to...

HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius listens as President Obama announces the contraceptive mandate at the White House, Jan. 12, 2012. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. Washington D.C., Jan 3, 2013 / 06:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The battle over religious freedom is intensifying as the controversial federal contraception mandate goes into effect for many for-profit employers at the start of the New Year. “We shouldn’t have to give up our First Amendment rights to make a living,� said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor for The Catholic Association, which seeks to bring a faithful Catholic voice to the public square....

We had this in headlines a couple of days ago, but many probably missed it over the holidays. It's enough of a departure from other recent decisions that it's worth posting here, and I have a feeling we could use a little good news on a bad day. The devoutly Catholic founder of Domino's filed this lawsuit on behalf of an office park he owns in Michigan, not Domino's Pizza, but the suit is one of more than 40 brought against the federal government to prevent religious owners of secular businesses from being forced to violate their religious beliefs under...

As we look back on the past year, we conclude that 2012 is a year that will go down in infamy.For the first time in history, the government has attempted to force Americans to pay for the ending of human life – even if abortion violates their religious beliefs.The issue came to a head this summer when the ObamaCare abortion pill mandate was scheduled to go into effect. The mandate forces employers to provide health insurance coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization. And many employers are compelled to provide these in spite of their sincerely held religious beliefs...

Round one to Obama, largely because the justice assigned to hear the arguments for an injunction against the contraception mandate going into effect was Sotomayer. This doesn't mean that the government can't be sued on First Amendment grounds, just that Sotomayer saw no compelling reason to prevent the law's implementation. The Hill: ******** The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block the Obama administration's contraception mandate from taking effect. Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request for an emergency injunction that would have shielded employers from the mandate. The request was filed by Hobby Lobby, an arts-and-crafts chain. The company's Catholic...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block the Obama administration´s contraception mandate from taking effect. Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request for an emergency injunction that would have shielded employers from the mandate. The request was filed by Hobby Lobby, an arts-and-crafts chain. The company´s Catholic owners say the contraception mandate violates their religious freedom. Hobby Lobby might eventually win on that point, Sotomayor said, but the company didn´t meet the standard for an injunction blocking the mandate from taking effect.

The strategic situation after a year, and the terrain ahead As the Catholic Church and the Obama administration approach the first anniversary of what has become the most serious confrontation between the Church and the federal government in U.S. history — a confrontation caused by a regulatory mandate implementing Obamacare — a review of the strategic situation is in order, with an eye to the terrain ahead. But given the confusions about this struggle that were sown in many minds during the presidential campaign (not least by the vice president of the United States), it is important to begin by...

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 29, 2012 / 11:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal appeals court on Nov. 28 granted a Catholic business owner in Missouri an injunction against the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that he says violates his religious freedom by forcing him to provide insurance coverage for morally objectionable drugs and procedures. “The order sends a message that the religious beliefs of employers must be respected by the government,� said Francis Manion, Senior Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice. The center is representing Frank O’Brien and his St. Louis-based business O’Brien Industrial Holdings,...

Supreme Court revives challenge to President Obama's healthcare lawBy Sam Baker - 11/26/12 10:50 AM ET The Supreme Court revived a legal challenge to President Obama's healthcare law on Monday, saying a lower court can consider a challenge to the law's individual mandate. The court — with the blessing of the Obama administration — revived a suit filed by Liberty University. When Liberty's case reached a federal appeals court, the court said it could not rule because of the Anti-Injunction Act, a federal law that bars lawsuits against new taxes before they have taken effect. But when the Supreme Court...

Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned and run company, is fighting back against a judge’s decision siding with the Obama administration saying that it has the right to force it to pay for drugs for women that may cause abortions.The privately held retail chain with more than 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its HHS mandate. The company says it would face $1.3 million in fines on a daily basis starting in January if it fails to comply with the mandate, which requires religious employers to pay for or refer women for...

There have been some that Obama's performance in his reelection give him a strong democratic mandate. While I am not personally impressed this is the case based on his performance 2 point margin in the "popular vote" or his corresponding lead in the electoral college, I think we should all stand in awe of the mandate he has won in the inner city of Philadelphia! Winning in 59 of the Democratically administered voting districts by 100% to 0%! WOW! That is more than a Democratic mandate...with over 19 THOUSAND votes for Obama and exactly ZERO for Romney! Now that folks...

Obama: Americans voted for tax hikes on rich By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 5 hrs ago Claiming a mandate from his election romp over Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he had invited congressional leaders to the White House next week for talks on how to steer the battered economy away from a "fiscal cliff." Obama said he was open to compromise with Republicans—but that any final deal needed to raise taxes on the richest Americans. "This was a central question during the election," the president said in brief remarks in the East...

Old Guard Fox Pundits who Manipulated our Primaries for the past 8 years - Thank you for your "service" - now disappear...

Barack Obama won a second term but no mandate. Thanks in part to his own small-bore and brutish campaign, victory guarantees the president nothing more than the headache of building consensus in a gridlocked capital on behalf of a polarized public.If the president begins his second term under any delusion that voters rubber-stamped his agenda on Tuesday night, he is doomed to fail.Mandates are rarely won on election night. They are earned after Inauguration Day by leaders who spend their political capital wisely, taking advantage of events without overreaching. Obama is capable—as evidenced by his first-term success with health care...

In the aftermath of any victory, presidential candidates proclaim a new mandate to move forward on the values of their campaign. Barack Obama will probably be no different, but National Journal's Ron Fournier warns that claiming a mandate after this election would be politically dangerous --- and a fantasy: Barack Obama won a second term but no mandate. Thanks in part to his own small-bore and brutish campaign, victory guarantees the president nothing more than the headache of building consensus in a gridlocked capital on behalf of a polarized public.If the president begins his second term under any delusion that...

(CNSNews.com) – First lady Michelle Obama – after speaking about the importance of contraception and that “women can make our own decisions about our bodies” – proclaimed to an Ohio crowd that, “Every single child in this country is worthy.” “We want to give all our children opportunities worthy of their promise – because all of our kids are worthy,” Michelle Obama said. “Every single child in this country is worthy. We want our children to have that sense of limitless possibility; the belief that here in America, the greatest country on the planet, there is always something better out...

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A federal judge in St. Louis has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate of the federal health care law, one of nearly three dozen similar lawsuits filed across the country. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Frank O’Brien and his company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings LLC of St. Louis, challenges the constitutionality of regulations in the health care law. Among other things, O’Brien, a devout Catholic, claimed the requirement that workplace health plans cover birth control infringes on his religious beliefs. U.S. District Judge Carole Jackson, in a ruling late Friday, disagreed. “This Court rejects the proposition...

Current GOP members of Congress are not impressed. A week ago, former U.S. Senator and former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told POLITICO, "I am supportive of exchanges and 'Obamacare' generally." In a commentary in The Week, he asserts, "As a doctor, I strongly believe that people without health insurance die sooner...State exchanges are the solution. They represent the federalist ideal of states as 'laboratories for democracy.'...I love the diversity and the innovation." Frist is talking the talk of the Left. Lack of insurance kills no one. And like many of his former colleagues, Frist must not have read the...

JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri’s College of the Ozarks has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a provision of the Affordable Care Act that would require its employee health plan to cover abortion services and certain types of contraception, including the morning-after pill. Leaders of the Presbyterian liberal arts college located near Branson say the mandate violates the school’s institutional religious beliefs. “The mandate chills the college's religious exercise by exposing the college to substantial fines for its religious beliefs and exercise of those beliefs,” the lawsuit states. “The mandate's required provision of insurance coverage for education and counseling concerning elective abortions...

An arts and crafts business with more than 500 stores across the country launched a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) implementation of Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate Wednesday, the Becket Fund announced. Hobby Lobby is the first non-Catholic business to file a lawsuit objecting to the mandated coverage of certain contraceptive drugs that it considers abortion inducing. Hobby Lobby “should never be put in a position of choosing their faith over their business,” Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund, said this morning in a conference call with the press. “We simply cannot abandon our...

Bart Stupak was a vital swing vote in the Obamacare debate 2 years ago. As a pro-life Democrat he could not support Obama’s signature initiative without some assurance that abortion would not be covered by the monstrous healthcare overhaul. Following an Executive Order signed by President Obama that supposedly ensured that abortion would not be covered, Stupak declared victory for the pro-life movement. This in spite of the fact that many had said the Executive Order was toothless and would not prevent anything. It seems Mr. Stupak has finally realized this.

The Obama administration issued final rules Tuesday that require a major boost in vehicle mileage standards, highlighting a clash with Mitt Romney as the GOP convention gets under way. 

The Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced joint mileage and carbon emissions rules for model years 2017 through 2025 that will eventually force automakers to meet a standard equivalent to 54.5 miles per gallon.

 Administration officials have made the rules a cornerstone of their energy agenda, noting that alongside earlier 2012-2016 rules, the mandate will eventually save consumers an estimated $1.7 trillion in fuel costs and save 12 billion barrels...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. governors asked the United States government on Tuesday to waive this year's mandate for making ethanol from corn, adding pressure on it to relieve meat producers from high corn prices spurred by the worst drought in more than 50 years.

On this episode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program on KRMR The Patriot 105.7FM host Dr. Paul A. Ibbetson interviews Dave Trabert and Micheal Head about a Kansas study conducted on the costs and benefits of renewable energy and government mandates.

The Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization to help renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education, issued the following statement: August 1, 2012, marks the formal beginning of the persecution of Catholic colleges and universities that wish to remain faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. As of today, the Obama administration is forcing Catholic colleges to help students and employees obtain no-cost sterilizations, abortion-causing drugs and contraceptives, and also “counseling” promoting these practices. And who are the first victims of the Obama administration’s new Sexual Revolution? Catholic colleges and the parents of Catholic college students! One...

Colorado judge's order on ObamaCare restores faith to the systemBy Quin Hillyer Published July 30, 2012 FoxNews.com Faith just won a round in court. As President Obama’s mandated insurance coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs takes effect on August 1 for ordinary businesses, the Health and Human Services mandate’s ultimate survival suddenly appears blessedly jeopardized. Federal district Judge John J. Kane of Colorado on Friday issued a temporary injunction blocking the mandate from being applied to Hercules Industries, a family-owned manufacturer of air-conditioning products. **SNIP** Comparatively little attention, though, had been paid to the private businesses that also object...

Basic Rights: A court in Colorado has ruled that, contrary to DOJ arguments, Americans do not have to choose between giving up their faith or giving up their business. Freedom of religion also applies to the free marketplace. The Newland family of Colorado and the heating and air conditioning business they run are not quite as famous as CEO Dan Cathy and his Chick-fil-A restaurant chain — at least not yet. The granting of an injunction by Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court in Colorado saying they do not have to comply with the Health and...

Don't get too excited by this court decision, an injunction against the HHS contraception mandate that goes into effect on Wednesday. We've seen other court rulings on ObamaCare go one way, only to be disappointed in the final test at the Supreme Court. Still, I'd rather win the first round than lose it (via The Anchoress): The Catholic family that owns a Colorado-based company won a court victory in their battle to stop the Obama administration from requiring them to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception, a mandate they say violates their religious beliefs and First Amendment...

A federal court issued an order Friday that halts enforcement of the Obama administrationÂ’s abortion pill mandate against a Colorado family-owned business while an Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit challenging the mandate continues in court.The mandate has generated massive opposition from pro-life groups because it forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys obtained the first-ever order against the mandate on behalf of Hercules Industries and the Catholic family that owns it. The administration opposed the order, arguing, contrary to the U.S....

When President Obama was selling health reform, he often talked about providing universal coverage. But a Congressional Budget Office report out this week finds that goal getting more elusive. The report found that despite ObamaCare’s $1.2 trillion price tag, it would only cut the ranks of the uninsured in half, leaving 30 million without coverage. That’s seven million more uninsured than the CBO first projected in March 2010. [snip] But the uninsured problem under ObamaCare could be much worse than the CBO projects.

http://youtu.be/CKpckraQ2W0 Free speech is less free in Arkansas.  In fact, volunteers with Tradition Family and Property (TFP—Louisiana) were recently attacked in Little Rock during a peaceful rally against Obamacare and its HHS mandate.  The incident occurred on July 17. Man Targets American flag At the McCain Mall in North Little Rock, a middle-aged man came up from behind the group as they calmly prayed the rosary. First he said, “Praise be Mary,” giving the impression he was friendly.  Next he shouted, “Get the hell out of here!” and rushed our American flag bearer Elias Bartel, knocking him off his feet...

At age 76 when you most need it, you are not eligible for cancer treatment see page 272 What Nancy Pelosi didn't want us to know until after the healthcare bill was passed. Remember she said, "pass it and then read it!!." Here it is! ______________________________ Obama Care Highlighted by Page Number THE CARE BILL HB 3200 JUDGE KITHIL IS THE 2ND OFFICIAL WHO HAS OUTLINED THESE PARTS OF THE CARE BILL. Judge Kithil of Marble Falls, TX - highlighted the most egregious pages of HB3200 Please read this........ especially the reference to pages 58 & 59 JUDGE KITHIL wrote:...

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by attorneys general of several states against the Obama HHS mandate that requires to religious employers to pay for or refer women for abortion-causing drugs and birth control in violation of their religious liberties. U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom of Lincoln, Nebraska dismissed the case the state attorney general there filed with several other colleagues from across the nation. he said the states did not have standing in court to bring the lawsuit against the Obamacare HHS mandate. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning’s office brought the lawsuit along with attorneys general of...

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) talks to PJM about his new bill to counter provisions that could "tax religiously affiliated schools, hospitals, universities and soup kitchens right out of existence." Before the House repealed ObamaCare once more last week, another bill was introduced to stop the Department of Health and Human Services from charging religious institutions steep fines for noncompliance with the mandate to provide birth control without an insurance co-payment. Under President Obama’s healthcare law, the HHS can levy $100 per employee, per day against institutions that won’t comply with the mandate. Therefore, religious employers with hundreds of employees could...