Wednesday, July 02, 2014 9:42:37 AM · by SeekAndFind · 14 replies
National Review ^ | 07/01/2014 | Jonah Goldberg
Posted on 07/02/2014 12:33:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
Abortion-rights protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court building on Monday holding signs that read "Birth Control: Not My Boss's Business."
Much to their chagrin, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito agreed in his ruling in the Hobby Lobby case.
Of course, that's not how supporters of the government's contraception mandate see it. They actually believe that birth control is their boss' business, and they want the federal government to force employers to agree.
More on that later, but it's first worth noting how we got here.
First, contrary to a lot of lazy punditry, there is no Obamacare contraception mandate. As my National Review colleague Ramesh Ponnuru notes, even President Obama's liberal rubber-stamp Congress of 2009-10 never addressed -- or even debated -- the question of whether companies can be forced to provide contraceptive coverage. Department of Health and Human Services bureaucrats simply asserted that they could impose such a requirement. Indeed, "several pro-life Democrats," Ponnuru adds, "who provided the law's narrow margin of victory in the House have said they would have voted against the law had it included the mandate."
Moreover, Hobby Lobby never objected to covering birth control per se. It already covers 16 kinds of birth control for its employees. But it objected to paying for what it considers to be abortifacients, which don't prevent a pregnancy but terminate one. The pro-abortion-rights lobby can argue that "abortion" and "birth control" are synonymous terms, but that doesn't make it true.
One lesson here is that overreaching can have unintended consequences. We saw that last week when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the White House had overplayed its hand when it comes to the president's ability to make recess appointments. By abusing a presidential prerogative, Obama invited the court to address the issue. As a result, presidential power -- at least in this regard -- is now more curtailed.
Similarly, the Hobby Lobby decision opens the door for closely held companies to deny coverage of all forms of birth control, if they can plausibly argue that doing so would violate their conscience. The decision doesn't apply to large, publicly held corporations, but even if it did, it is unlikely that many companies would go down that path. And even if they did, birth control would not be "banned"; employees simply would have to pay for it themselves. The notion that denying a subsidy for a product is equivalent to banning that product is one of the odder tenets of contemporary liberalism.
This gets us to why I think the ruling's majority essentially agreed with the protesters. If I like to dress up as a character from "Game of Thrones" on weekends, pretending to fight snow zombies and treating my mutt like it's a mystical direwolf, that's none of my employer's business. But if I ask my employer to pay for my trip to a "Game of Thrones" fan convention, I am asking him to make it his business. If my employer refuses, that may or may not be unfair, but it's his right. If, in response, I go to the convention and have the government force my employer to pay for my travel, that only makes things worse. It not only makes my private pursuits my boss' business, it makes them the business of taxpayers and a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington.
At the heart of this, and so many other recent controversies, is an honest disagreement about how society should be organized. For liberals (and far too many Republicans), businesses should be de facto, if not de jure, extensions of government. If something is desirable, businesses should be forced to impose it. The fact that the owner disagrees or that it is not in the business' economic interest is immaterial. And it's not just businesses. Recall that the Obama administration has tried to force explicitly religious groups to betray their beliefs as well.
Obviously, there's room for nuance here. Few people think that we should scrap minimal workplace safety rules, for instance. No one thinks the Church of Satan should be permitted ritual human sacrifice. But when in doubt, the government should err on the side of laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui meme.
Not everything is your boss' business, or anybody else's.
What a MESS Justice Roberts started with his original decision..
True - Your birth control is not your boss’ decision.
Also true - What insurance your boss chooses to provide is not your decision.
It wasn’t Roberts’ decision — it was the decision of 5 Justices, including Roberts.
IMHO, Roberts is the only SCOTUS Justice, who acts like an impartial judge. The other 8 are hopelessly partisan — evident from the predictability of their decisions, based on partisan political ideologies. That’s not how any court is supposed to operate.
This argument makes more sense than what NARL is pushing.
It's not the government's business either. If the government would butt out of our business and businesses, I'm sure bosses would have better things to do than worry about you contraceptives. The is all driven by government meddling where government doesn't belong.
Obamacare is WRONG, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, and must be scrapped or nullified by the states.
Isn’t it just horrible when the media has to actually do their job?? How sad.
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Keep the government out of my uterus! Unless they are stuffing money up there!
Indeed, “several pro-life Democrats,” Ponnuru adds, “who provided the law’s narrow margin of victory in the House have said they would have voted against the law had it included the mandate.”
I don’t buy their excuse. They knew exactly what was going to be done.
One the saddest days in USSC decisions I've ever seen. I'm still amazed that he argued the "penalty" was a "tax", when Obamacare clearly says a "penalty" and they even argued so.
If not for Roberts, this all would have gone away. Although I try not to be a conspiracy proponent, this has blackmail written all over it. One man has destroyed our working (although flawed) health system. So many are and will continue to get lessor health care because of this. Probably my wife, children, grand-children and I.
The real problems are just now starting to manifest themselves on almost a daily basis. The original website problems are nothing compared to what is written into that obscene law to take over of our lives.
We're now reading just how much this is causing harm:
Unfair political waivers; unfair and questionable subsidies; companies reducing hours and dropping health care plans altogether; people applying and not getting confirmation; applicants paying and still can't get appointments; ; doctors retiring; "you can keep your doctor" lies; hospitals scrambling to maintain viability; et al........"
THE biggest Republican effort this election cycle must be about this horrendous takeover of our personal lives. Many don't care about the foibles of Obambi's foreign policy, but this hits home to everyone, and now they're finding out.
I call it DEMOCRAT-CARE. An Obambi initiative and passed in the dead of night behind closed doors by Pelosi and Reid and the other controlling Democrats. NOT ONE SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR THIS MONSTROSITY!!!
This is the winning issue come November.
“If not for Roberts, this all would have gone away.”
Bumpity-Bump-Bump-BUMP!
Sorry to sound like a Broken Record, but this is EXACTLY what *I* have been asked to do to my TEAM:
“...companies reducing hours and dropping health care plans altogether...”
NO overtime. NO more than 29 hours (averaged) a week. Part-time, long-term employees (10 YEARS with the company!) that once qualified for a Flex Plan - GONE. Full-time Employees (me, included) who used to get a VERY generous $1,300.00 a year from my employer into my flex plan (pre-tax dollars, plus whatever *I* wanted to contribute) - GONE. They can’t give us more than $500/year, now. At least that will cover 2 dental cleanings and MAYBE a pair of glasses every few years...if I skip the dental cleanings. (NEVER!)
And guess what? EVERYONE is expected to do MORE for LESS pay and benefits!
You just TRY finding decent human beings who will work under those conditions and not STEAL from you, show up drunk or high or annoy your VALUED, PAYING customers. Grrrrrrr!
Oh, I’m MAKING it work - it’s just SUCH a PITA! And to what end? Socialized Medicine and Death Panels? Gaaaaaah!
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