The Supreme Court of the United States has released its opinion on the matter of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., relating to the right of a corporation to decline to participate in the Affordable Care Act mandates to cover various kinds of birth control. Hobby Lobby argued the ACA made an unconstitutional breach of the company religious beliefs (an argument I agree with), and that it should be excluded from that mandate if it wished. In short, the Supreme Court agreed (barely). "SCOTUS" released its 5-4 ruling and slip opinion today, which I've uploaded to my site here for you to read if you're so inclined.
I'm thankful that religious liberty, a founding principal of our country, has been protected. The arguments of the opposition across the country are already framing this as a strike against women's rights, an argument that is nothing more than hate mongering against conservatives. Women have just as many rights today as they did yesterday when it comes to using contraceptives. But, thankfully, a family and their business that holds certain values against using contraception is now not required to violate their beliefs in order to comply with a federal law. As usual, the conservative right is demonized for "hating" this group, "excluding" that group, or "waging a war on ______" when in fact the hate, exclusion and war is being waged on conservatives by the liberal left. Only Christian values and beliefs are not worth protecting. Somehow, forcing Christians to abandon their values is not only ok, but its not viewed as exclusion, hate or otherwise unjust to do so. Oh the irony.
As I post this, I haven't yet read the opinion, but I'll plow through it over the next few days to see what the implications are for the decision. I invite you to do the same, regardless of what you believe. This case relates specifically to a family that holds Christian values, but the ruling applies to all family businesses that hold whatever values. The ruling is a win for religious freedom - a right so valuable to our framers they listed it first in the Bill of Rights.
Click the Image Below to Open the Slip Opinion (PDF)
