Posted on 10/11/2012 7:26:37 AM PDT by marshmallow
The recent decision by a federal court in Missouri to reject one of the lawsuits challenging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Obamacare mandate, requires near universal carrying of insurance plans that cover, gratis, contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs raises troubling questions about how the courts generally are going to rule on the numerous other lawsuits currently filed against this misbegotten HHS mandate. Catholics and other opponents of the mandate believe it to be a grave violation of religious liberty, both under the First Amendment and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but this recent Missouri decision judges it to be no violation at all on either count.
A for-profit, non-religious company, OBriens Industries Holdings (OIH), had sued claiming that complying with the mandate would violate owner Frank OBriens ability to operate the company in accordance with his religious convictions and practice; not complying would subject his company to ruinous fines that would have a crippling effect on the companys ability to survive economically.
Federal Judge Carol E. Jackson, however, rejected this lawsuit in its entirety, ruling that the company did not qualify for the (very narrow) exemption for some religious employers and holding that the mandate does not constitute the substantial burden on anyones religious freedom that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act specifies.
With regard to the question of whether the mandate violates the First Amendments guarantee of the free exercise of religion, Judge Jackson averred that the HHS regulation is an entirely neutral instance of insuring womens access to healthcare, and the First Amendment, in her view, does not exempt anybody from complying with neutral laws of general applicability. (Actually, in issuing the mandate, HHS simply defined by regulation, without any underlying legislative authority to do so, that the objectionable birth prevention procedurescontraception, sterilization, and abortifacientssomehow....
(Excerpt) Read more at crisismagazine.com ...
Breathtaking.
So, murdering gestate and neonatal infants is perceived by this female stalinist to be some kind of “women’s health care”, akin to mammograms.
The catholic and baptist hospitals will just go out of business.
Then they can be taken over by the government, which I believe is the underlying intent.
Oh, and it will also put an end to parochial schools and denominational universities that cannot comply due to religious conscience. Liberty University, Pensacola Christian College, all seriously Catholic Universities, will have to compromise their faith to continue running these schools.
Real sweet for the collectivists.
We are being assimilated into the Collective. Resistance is futile.
The courts will not side with us, and even if a Republican Congress passes legislation negating or outlawing this mandate, the courts will overturn it.
I wonder how many companies will choose from twice as many employees at half the hours or shutting down to avoid this.
If Romney wins, he will control HHS and can appoint a new Secretary. If (and that's a big "if") he were so inclined, could he not have the HHS mandate rescinded? I don't think it was written into the Affordable Care Act itself.
HBU - Houston Baptist University is also filing suit against the HHS mandate for the same reason.
I can understand discouragement, even cynicism. But what use is preemptive surrender?
"Resistance is futile" is the motto of the Borg.
OUR motto is
Thats a really nice pic...
Not saying I agree with it BUT: you cannot object to paying income taxes on the grounds that your money is used to fight wars you object to or to fund this or that that you object to.
I would suggest that the only real way out is to repeal the law that gave HHS the framework to devise these regulation in the first place. Once that is gone, the court can’t uphold what is not there. The court COULD strike down so called conscience laws so long as this humongous mandate is in place. So the only thing to do is to repeal this travesty.
I was going to suggest that Catholic institutions simply forgo anything from the federal system and place themselves outside their jurisdiction and become self insured. But that won’t work, given the mandate.
FUBO! and the rest of your klown posse.
LLS
The HHS mandate has nothing to do with whether they accept taxpayer money or not. It’s not an “attached string”; it’s binding on every employer.
Mrs. Don-o - I agree!!! My tagline does, too.
Pre-emptive surrender and defeatism is all over the place. I am sure many of them are posted by trolls. I am NOT saying that you, Westbrook, are such a troll at all. But I do know that trolls like to trot out such “All is hopeless, nothing will ever work, we are doomed” nonsense.
Look what’s happening with the pro-life movement - abortuaries are shutting down here and there - increasingly so, and more people are pro-life. The Tide Has Turned! Due to hard work, determination and a “never give up” spirit! And of course God’s mercy. Wars are lost with pre-emptive surrender, each and every time.
Why is this bound on every employer? Are they a private organization that does not have to follow the dictates of a government mandate?
Look the Catholic Hospitals loved when EMTALA was passed which shifted cost from the poor to everyone else. It allowed them to expand and grow as a charitable business on the back of the American taxpayer. Now they complain when the Government makes rules they don’t like. They should have never made a deal with the devil and then complain about the cost.
Indeed, dear sister.
But I’ve read the End of the Book, and this world is beginning to look more and more like the world in Rev 13.
Even so, come Lord Jesus!
It is an insurance coverage mandate from the HHS, authorized by Obamacare, imposed on every employer with more than 50 employees. Did you get that?
Perhaps if you read this my position might be clear.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2948777
That whole rant you linked has exactly nothing to do with the HHS mandate.
That would be private manufacturers like Hercules Industries in Colorado, Baptist colleges like Holston Baptist U. in Texas, etc. etc.
As you no doubt know.
Therefore, although the socialists in the USCCB and related church-related bureaucracies need a good whuppin', this idea that the Cathholic institutions ought to lay down and take it --- like every other employer ---- is perfectly false.
The real, and ongoing scandal, is that the Catholic hospitals, unoiversities, and charities, to a alrge extent, are indeed willing to do just that. "Take us! Make us! We love you, you big strong omnicompetent State!"
There's only --- what, I suppose less than 50 --- Catholic federal lawsuits on this. There should be hundreds and hundreds.
Because many have been too accommodating to the socialist Leviathan, you now insist that they ALL be TOTALLY accommodating, for the same of consistency?
And youw ant to mock those who DO resist?
Nonsense.
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