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Hobby Lobby Hysteria: The Supreme Court DID NOT deny access to contraception to anyone.
National Review ^ | 06/30/2014 | The Editors

Posted on 06/30/2014 2:16:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Contrary to what you may have read in less enlightened corners of the Internet, the Supreme Court did not deny access to contraception to anyone. Rather, it ruled today that if the owners of a closely held company have religious objections to providing contraceptives or abortifacients in their insurance policies, the Obama administration cannot force them to do it.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) trumps the administration’s regulations. The act says that religious objectors must be exempt from a government policy that imposes a substantial burden on their beliefs if the government has a less burdensome way of advancing a compelling interest. Five justices of the Court ruled that closely held companies can be religious objectors protected by the law, and that the government can indeed make contraception more affordable without coercing these companies.

Just as notable is what the Supreme Court’s ruling did not do. Women who work for the plaintiffs, Hobby Lobby, remain able to use their employer-provided insurance coverage to finance the most popular forms of contraception. They remain free to use their wages to finance the ones Hobby Lobby will not cover. They remain free to find other jobs, too, if they want employer-provided insurance coverage that includes the abortifacients to which Hobby Lobby objects. Congress remains free to enact a new law that requires employers to cover abortifacients and contraceptives and explicitly rules out any RFRA exemptions. It remains free, for that matter, to repeal RFRA altogether. The ruling does not even make it clear whether the Little Sisters of the Poor will, in the end, remain free from the requirement that they authorize another party to provide contraceptive coverage. That question will be answered in a different case. The Court’s ruling today, in short, is an extremely limited one. It does not even restore the full scope of freedom employers had in these matters as recently as 2012. Nobody then, you may recall, was agitated over the fact that throughout the entire course of American history up to that point, their supposed “rights” to free contraceptive coverage from employers had been continuously violated.

It can be safely predicted that any change in birth rates and rates of contraceptive use based on this ruling will be undetectable. All that has changed is that employers are a little freer to refuse to engage in conduct they consider religiously objectionable. That this increase in freedom makes some people so very upset tells us more about them than about the Court’s ruling.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; hobbylobby; hobbylobbydecision; leftists; scotus; supremecourt
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1 posted on 06/30/2014 2:16:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind; Lurking Libertarian; Perdogg; JDW11235; Clairity; Spacetrucker; Art in Idaho; ...

FReepmail me to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the SCOTUS ping list.

2 posted on 06/30/2014 2:17:10 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s the hysteria of the misinformed MSM that’s braying.


3 posted on 06/30/2014 2:17:14 PM PDT by SkyDancer (If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read newspapers you are misinformed)
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To: SeekAndFind

And let me emphasize.... If you are a taxpayer, regardless of whether or not you are a devout Evangelical or Catholic, YOU ARE ALREADY PAYING for abortions whether you like it or not.


4 posted on 06/30/2014 2:17:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SkyDancer

And let me emphasize.... If you are a taxpayer, regardless of whether or not you are a devout Evangelical or Catholic, YOU ARE ALREADY PAYING for abortions whether you like it or not.

This is the sad truth.


5 posted on 06/30/2014 2:18:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Freepers have you been on Supreme Court twitter feeds Libs are going NUTS

So funny LMAO


6 posted on 06/30/2014 2:19:03 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: SeekAndFind
We have no control over how the money confiscated from us by the government is spent. I don't like paying Pelosi’s or Reid's or Biden’s or 0bozo salary either but we do.
7 posted on 06/30/2014 2:20:55 PM PDT by SkyDancer (If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read newspapers you are misinformed)
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To: SeekAndFind

Don’t be silly, dears. If you have to pay for something you want, you’ve been “denied access.” That’s the official government definition, for now.


8 posted on 06/30/2014 2:23:14 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I don't feel obligated to provide you with a non-boring gun.)
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To: SkyDancer

I look at it this way:
My Federal income taxes contribute to my father’s Navy pension or my daughter’s Coast Guard salary.
My State income taxes pave roads.
My county taxes go to the Sheriff’s department.


9 posted on 06/30/2014 2:25:47 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I don't feel obligated to provide you with a non-boring gun.)
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To: Tax-chick

Good point. Thanks.


10 posted on 06/30/2014 2:32:57 PM PDT by SkyDancer (If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read newspapers you are misinformed)
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To: Tax-chick

I want an Alfa Romeo. I don’t have one for free. I have been denied access.


11 posted on 06/30/2014 2:36:48 PM PDT by ilgipper
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To: SkyDancer

It’s all fungible, so why not mentally direct it where you like? Our Federal income tax is probably less than what it cost to support our daughter when she lived at home ;-), and it’s much less than her Coast Guard salary.


12 posted on 06/30/2014 2:38:08 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I don't feel obligated to provide you with a non-boring gun.)
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To: ilgipper

You need to organize a community of others who have been denied access to Alfa Romeos and make sure you get your rights!!!

I have a 1984 Mazda RX-7, mint condition except for that brake light thing and the “Will it start?” issue ...


13 posted on 06/30/2014 2:39:41 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I don't feel obligated to provide you with a non-boring gun.)
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To: SevenofNine

It would worry me if Sandra Fluke was leading any march on Washington. The response would be overwhelming.

I am not too worried about this as she is still shacked up at the NoTell Motel having sex all day long...


14 posted on 06/30/2014 2:42:34 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The hysteria is off the charts!


15 posted on 06/30/2014 2:44:09 PM PDT by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: Tax-chick

Unlike yourself that is still in original mint-condition? :)


16 posted on 06/30/2014 2:45:15 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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To: Delta Dawn
She's made it to the November ballot (but she was smart enough to head to California before running for office).


17 posted on 06/30/2014 2:47:10 PM PDT by nascarnation (Toxic Baraq Syndrome: hopefully infecting a Dem candidate near you)
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To: Delta Dawn

I was 17 in 1984, when my father bought this car. Today, I have some minor electrical issues ... but I’m better at starting in the morning than I was at 17!


18 posted on 06/30/2014 2:48:13 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I don't feel obligated to provide you with a non-boring gun.)
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To: SkyDancer
And you wonder why Jeff Zucker is having a lot of trouble running CNN--the same Zucker that totally botched the supposed transition from Jay Leno to Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show on NBC. Small wonder why the transition from Leno to Jimmy Fallon went a lot smoother because Zucker wasn't around to "gum up the whole works."
19 posted on 06/30/2014 2:55:01 PM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: SeekAndFind

Aw, come on, the morons are being told what to believe and believe they will.

The only reason the progressives and the media hate religion is because they think they’re being displaced by God.


20 posted on 06/30/2014 3:07:58 PM PDT by tiki
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