Free Republic

In a victory for religious freedom, the Supreme Court ruled today 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (formerly named Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby). The case was the strongest legal challenge to Obamacare since 2012. Justice Alito authored the majority opinion, and Justice Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given the Obama administration (and, hopefully the world) a lesson in the first freedom. I'm sorry it was necessary, but it was—the government cannot (and must not) require people of faith to violate their sincerely-held beliefs. The High Court's Ruling The ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties underscores religious liberty as our "first freedom." The freedom to exercise religion, enshrined in our Constitution's Bill of Rights, has been called "the cornerstone of the American experiment" because it is from our religious freedom all of our other freedoms flow. Below is a...

A few years ago, Vice President Joe Biden called a wind turbine facility in Saginaw one of the top "100 Recovery Act Projects that are Changing America." In 2010, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awarded Merrill Technologies Group a $22 million advanced energy manufacturing tax credit that then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office said was used to buy advanced manufacturing equipment needed to create wind turbine components in a facility in Saginaw. The Recovery Act also gave Merrill Technologies another $3 million. The former governor trumpeted the facility as the future of Michigan's economy that would help create 89,918 clean energy...

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby on June 26, and the closer we get to that date the more frantic liberals become. Their fear of a decision in favor of the arts and crafts chain, whose owners have challenged the constitutionality of Obamacare’s contraception mandate on the grounds that it violates their religious liberty, has reached such a pitch that they are making claims that transcend the merely portentous. Their warnings concerning the consequences of a high court win for the Green family, the company’s owners, have now become downright apocalyptic....

Challenging the Culture as We Celebrate Independence Day By Sister Constance Veit, l.s.p. When we observed the Fortnight for Freedom in 2012, I naively thought it would be a one-time event. I assumed that the HHS Contraceptive Mandate would soon be overturned and our congregation of Little Sisters of the Poor would quickly fall out of the public eye. But this month marks our third Fortnight, and our lawsuit against the federal government over the HHS Mandate is still pending as I write this. In May, a group of Little Sisters attended the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s annual...

The real stage for the HHS contraception mandate will be the Supreme Court, where arguments have already been heard on the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases involving private-sector secular employers. The fight still continues in lower courts, however, and also in regard to religious employers. In Oklahoma, a federal judge issued an injunction on Wednesday blocking enforcement on more than 200 Catholic employers and thousands of parishes, thanks to a lawsuit filed in March by the Catholic Benefits Association. It is one of the few class-action suits being brought against the contraception mandate: A government attorney declined to comment...

Conservatives have long known that Obamacare’s employer mandate, if implemented, will create harmful distortions in the labor market and damage the economy. The mandate will force small employers to rebuff workers they would hire in its absence, and it will incentivize large employers to replace full-time employees with part-timers. When conservative policy experts and business groups first pointed this out, however, Obamacare supporters robotically recited the usual canards about close-fisted capitalists who value profit more than healthy employees. But a funny thing happened on the way to the midterms—the President delayed implementation of the mandate until after the election. This...

A majority of Americans support having businesses be compelled to provide contraceptive services as part of a healthcare plan, argues the findings of a recently released poll. Conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, the poll found that of about 1,100 respondents, 61 percent, felt that "publicly-held corporations" should provide contraception as part of their free healthcare plans. 57 percent of respondents felt that "privately-owned corporations" should be compelled to do the same, while only a slight majority, 51 percent, believed small businesses should be required to do so. "With the exception of churches and other places of worship, most...

A federal court has blocked the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing its birth control mandate on two Christian colleges, Dordt College in Iowa and Cornerstone University in Michigan, while their cases move forward. The preliminary injunction was granted for three reasons, U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett wrote: 1) The plaintiffs, Dordt and Cornerstone, "may suffer irreparable harm" because "they would be forced to comply" with the birth control mandate "to the detriment of their religious exercise." 2) On balance, the plaintiffs would suffer more than the defendants. The worst that could happen if the government...

The 2010 healthcare law has generated multiple controversies, and some of them were unavoidable. For example, once lawmakers decided to require insurers to disregard preexisting conditions -- a reform that most people actually like -- they had to take other steps to avoid triggering a vicious spiral of premium increases. None of those steps would have been popular, although the route Congress chose (requiring virtually every adult American to buy insurance, then creating costly subsidies for those who couldn't afford to comply) may have been the path of most resistance. Most employers would not drop coverage if the penalties were...

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said on Tuesday that the regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the Affordable Care Act that requires health insurance plans to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs “violates God’s law.” […] The cardinal also said that whether Americans should obey this “unjust” mandate and whether Catholic members of Congress could vote for a bill that funded its implementation were “complicated issues.” On June 14, 2012, the Catholic bishops of the United States unanimously approved a statement declaring the contraception-sterilization-abortifacient...

The Obama administration is significantly reducing the amount of cellulosic biofuels refiners will have to prove they blended into gasoline last year, acknowledging that the market lagged far behind government projections.The EPA on Tuesday said it was basing its 2013 standard on the 810,185 ethanol-equivalent gallons produced with nonfood plants last year. …

In case you missed it Obama, our federal Constitution tells us in crystal clear language that our Constitution, and only those “Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land ….” And so, the question which must be asked and answered to determine if Obamacare is the law of the land is, was Obamacare made in pursuance of our Constitution? As I will have further occasion to establish, Obama care does not meet constitutional muster and turns out to be legislative tyranny backed up by judicial...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. administration has not determined whether it has legal authority to delay Obamacare's individual mandate, which requires most Americans to enroll in health insurance or pay a tax penalty, a senior Treasury official said on Tuesday. Mark Iwry, senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, told U.S. lawmakers the administration sees no reason for delay given that the law allows for exemptions and provides financial assistance for those unable to afford health coverage on their own. He said the provision also underpins reforms that protect sick people from discriminatory market practices. "If we don't believe that...

Democrats fought back Sunday against claims from a former Obama aide that the White House might delay Obamacare’s employer mandate. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi called the mandate, which requires businesses with between 50 and 100 employees to provide health insurance for workers or face a penalty, “integral.” “Of all the things I want to say about the Affordable Care Act, Robert Gibbs' opinion, I don't know who his clients are or what his perspective is, but we are celebrating the fact that we have over 7 million who have signed up,” the California Democrat said on CNN’s “State...

March 26, 2014 10:44 AM Read the Complete List of Obamacare Delays By Alec Torres The Obama administration will announce its tenth Obamacare delay later today, this time extending the March 31 enrollment deadline for people who say they’ve been unable to enroll in health plans in the federal marketplace by the deadline. The extension applies to the federal exchange operating in three dozen states and is expected to last for two or three weeks. Can’t remember what all the delays have been? Politico provided a helpful history of Obamacare delays from most to least recent: March 25: Final enrollment...

[Carter appointee Judge Harry Edwards] prodded Carvin to explain why Congress saw it as such an advantage to have states rather than the federal government manage the exchanges. “Why does it matter who establishes the exchanges?” he asked. “Your argument makes no sense.” He said, “Who cares?” At that point, [GHWB appointee Judge Raymond] Randolph jumped in and said, “Ben Nelson.” Carvin agreed, arguing that Nelson, the former senator from Nebraska, was withholding support for Obamacare, in part, because he wanted exchanges to be state-based rather than federally-run. To get the law across the finish line, the Senate voted to...

Surprise! The individual mandate has been watered down by the White House to the point that it barely exists at all. That's the conclusion of a piece at Politico which confirms what many conservatives were saying about the mandate two weeks ago. Titled "Honey, I shrunk the mandate," the piece highlights exemption 14, which was added to the list of possible hardship exemptions in December. It notes that under exemption 14 practically anyone can claim a hardship exemption and documentation is requested "if possible." In other words, documentation is optional. While the Politico piece accurately frames these exemptions to the...

With many political debates, I try to give opponents the benefit of the doubt on intentions. Sure, raising taxes is a bad thing, but some politicians and pundits believe higher taxes will benefit society. Some people think we need to spend more, and others really fear climate change.When it comes to the HHS abortifacient/contraception/sterilization mandate, however, I’ve almost stopped being that generous with the left’s media and thought leaders. This New York Times Magazine editorial is a prime example as to why. Almost from start to finish, the piece misleads and misdirects readers about the mandate, its opponents, and religious...

Does our Constitution guarantee the freedom of religion, or does it merely allow a more limited freedom to worship? The difference is profound. Worship is an event. Religion is a way of life. Specifically, does the First Amendment guarantee believers of all faiths the freedom to practice their ethics, educate their children and operate family businesses based on their religious beliefs, moral convictions and freedom of conscience? Do Americans have the freedom to place our beliefs and ethics at the center of our business practices — or must we ignore them when we form a company? These questions will be...