Hobby Lobby to Defy Sotomayor Ruling on Morning-After Pill

Newsmax ^ | 27 Dec 2012 | Newsmax

[Mrs. Don-o]

An attorney for Hobby Lobby Stores said Thursday that the arts and crafts chain plans to defy a federal mandate requiring it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill, despite risking potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.

Hobby Lobby and religious book-seller Mardel, which are owned by the same conservative Christian family, are suing to block part of the federal health care law that requires employee health-care plans to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar emergency contraception pills.

The companies claim the mandate violates the religious beliefs of their owners. They say the morning-after pill is tantamount to abortion because it can prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in a woman's womb.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the companies' request for an injunction while their lawsuit is pending, saying the stores failed to satisfy the demanding legal standard for blocking the requirement on an emergency basis. She said the companies may still challenge the regulations in the lower courts.

Kyle Duncan, who is representing Hobby Lobby on behalf of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement posted on the group's website Thursday that Hobby Lobby doesn't intend to offer its employees insurance that would cover the drug while its lawsuit is pending.

"The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees," Duncan said. "To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs."

In ruling against the companies last month, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton said churches and other religious organizations have been granted constitutional protection from the birth-control provisions but that "Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations."

[Jacquerie]

“The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.” - Some guy named Bastiat.

[Vendome]

Great Idea.

I’ll go there next week and buy something and then send them a note thanking them for their brave stance.

In the 80’s I nearly acquired them as a customer. I lost the deal but still respected them as a company.

Same as I do for Chick-fil-a and In & Out Burger.

Well that’s great. Now I’m hungry.

I’m thinking I’ll go to Sonic for some onion rings.

[2ndDivisionVet]

What is this $10 thing you speak of?

[Jacquerie]

It isn't law passed by our reps and senators. It is a regulation written, passed and enforced by a single person, Sebellius. It is tyranny and there is no moral reason to obey it.

And . . . religious liberty is our individual right, so it would be unconstitutional even if Congress passed it as law.

[Mrs. Don-o]

A wonderful idea! Will you do it?

[Springfield Reformer]

Good point, and an argument can be made that Congress has exceeded its power of delegation by allowing regulators to conjure up regs so clearly out of step with constitutional first principles.

[HarleyD]

Amen.

We don’t have a Hobby Lobby in our area but we’ll make it a point to stop when visiting my mother-in-law who has one by her.

[Usagi_yo]

The actual remedy is simple.

Offer a 100% employee paid additional group plan only for birth control issues.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Ah. I see your point. However the family that owns Hobby Lobby says the govt. has given them the choice of either perform an immoral act (pay for abortion pills, contraceptive and sterilizations for their employees) or shut down.

This is not right. Not only do churches have a 1st Amendment right to the Free Exercise of Religion, but individual citizens do too. That partiular Amendment to the Constitution begins with some of the most blessed words in hte English language, "Congress shall make no law..."

I don't think the govt. would dare to tell a business owned by an Orthodox Jewish family, for instance, that they had to open and do business on the Sabbath. Or be shut down.

Or to tell a business owned by a Muslim family, that they had to give their employees coupons for specifically Hams, Bacon and Pork Sausage as a benefit. Or be shut down.

And this happens to be not a bacon issue, but a life-and-death issue, literally, on which the govt. is instructing this business to do something they see as being accomplices to an abominable act.

I think Hobby Lobby is right: the government does not have the authority under the U.S. Constitution to conscript ANYBODY to renounce their moral code. Especially when there are other ways the govt. could distribute contraceptives and morning-after pills if they wanted to, e.g. they could hand the damned stuff out on the street if they wanted to, rather than coerce employers to offer them as a "benefit," when their religious, moral, and ethical belief forbids them to do so.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Oh, there’s no $10 limit. I was just thinking I should buy something I can really use (e.g. a good pair of scissors?) and $10 would be about right. I don’t have much to spend after Christmas!

[Mrs. Don-o]

"The actual remedy is simple. Offer a 100% employee paid additional group plan only for birth control issues."

That would be just peachy if Darth Sebelius would allow it, but she won't. She has made it illegal to offer any insurance plan unless it includes 100% "free" abortion pill, contraception, and sterilization procedures (including surgery) with no deductable and no co-pay.

That's what it's all about.

If you offer an insurance plan that doesn't cover this stuff free/no copay, they will fine you $100 per day for each employee in their health plan. For Hobby Lobby, that comes to $1.3 million per day in government fines.

Did you realize that?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Good thinking. I want some cake decorating supplies, I think I know where I’ll get them.

[tiger63]

I cannot see how the gov-mint can enact anything which will deprive any company or an individual the right to not make a living. The head muslim in charge has no leg to stand on! Only if we cave and allow this to happen.

[MWestMom]

So, our North Bridge in Concord will be Hobby Lobby’s defiance. May God let it be the “shot heard around the world.” God bless them. They have my prayers and continued business.

[fatima]

Just got this from Father Pavone”Priests for Life will not be forced to include objectionable contraceptive services,
sterilization procedures and abortion-inducing drugs in the health insurance coverage we provide for our dedicated staff!

“

[Spktyr]

Simple solution, then. Don’t offer insurance to your employees.

[smokingfrog]

http://m.hobbylobby.com/coupon

I’m sure I can think of something to buy there.

[smokingfrog]

Hobby Lobby doesn’t HAVE to provide Heath insurance to their employees, but they do. Now the govt. is forcing them to provide coverage for things they don’t agree with. It’s just another way this immoral govt. is taking away your freedom.

[Mrs. Don-o]

They see this as immoral, too: because that's pushing off the dire consequences onto the shoulders of their employees. They (Hobby Lobby) would then skip out by paying #2,000 per year as a "fine" to the HHS per employee, AND each employee would be required to individually purchase insurance which contains/subsidizes the morally objectionable coverage.

So "Hobby Lobby" would wash their hands "clean" with a $2,000/year fine per employee, and EACH EMPLOYEE would be stuck with the burden of having to resist individually.

Hobby Lobby says they consider it immoral and cowardly to get the company off "cheap" while forcing the entire burden onto their employees.

[HiTech RedNeck]

e.g. they could hand the damned stuff out on the street if they wanted to

My guess is that the USSC will back Hobby Lobby 5-4 and then Uncle Obama will do exactly that (actually make it a behind the counter thing at pharmacies).