Hobby Lobby to defy Obamacare mandate -- WND

[bsteadman]

Hobby Lobby to defy Obamacare mandate

Facing $1.3M daily fine for refusing to cover 'abortion-inducing drugs'

WND
12/28/2012

Excerpt:

Hobby Lobby, the Christian-owned company that provides hobby, arts and crafts supplies to tens of millions of customers across America, will defy the Obamacare mandate that health insurance for its employees cover “abortion-inducing drugs.”

The confirmation is from a statement released by an attorney, Kyle Duncan, who said in a website statement that, “The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”

The conflict is the latest firefight in the battle against Obama’s mandate that employers pay for abortifacients no matter their religious beliefs. The administration has argued in many of the dozens of lawsuit that have erupted over the conflict that religious people who own corporations must give up their rights to religious freedom.

Hobby Lobby’s case against the mandate remains pending in a lower court, but the statement from the attorney, who is with the Becket Fund, was released after an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected.

Officials estimate the company could face $1.3 million in daily fines for refusing to pay for abortifacients as Obama demands.

Sonya Sotomayor, who responds to emergency actions to the Supreme Court from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, simply told the company that officials could pay up for the abortifacients or face crushing penalties while its case continues in the lower courts.

Duncan’s statement confirmed those appeal efforts will continue.

“The Supreme Court merely decided not to get involved in the case at this time. It left open the possibility of review after their appeal is completed in the 10th Circuit,” he wrote.

Sotomayor wrote in her rejection of the appeal for recognition of the Constitution’s requirement for freedom of religion that the company didn’t meet the legal standard for blocking enforcement of the Obama demand.

While the judges at the 10th Circuit had rejected the company’s request, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier handed Christians a major victory against Obama, who previously has supported extreme abortion – to the point of advocating that babies who survive abortions be left to die.

“The government … represented to the court that it would never enforce [the mandate] in its current form against the appellants or those similarly situated as regards contraceptive services,” said an order released by U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

That three-judge panel said the government promised there would be “a different rule for entities like the appellants … and we take that as a binding commitment.”

“The government further represented that it would publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the new rule in the first quarter of 2013 and would issue a new Final Rule before August 2013.”

The judges continued: “We take the government at its word and will hold it to it.”

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of Christian business owners, religious colleges and others. Several judges, including those at one appellate bench, have ordered the government not to enforce the mandate for now.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/hobby-lob...acare-mandate/

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Thanks for posting this, Bruce. I am going to keep an eye on this story about Hobby Lobby as it continues to develop.

[bsteadman]

Hobby Lobby and the Loss of America's Soul

American Thinker
Jeannie DeAngelis
12/30/2012

Excerpt:

In America, established rights such as religious liberty and the right to bear arms are currently under attack. Liberals are in charge and they seem to feel that straightforward Constitutional precepts require alteration or eradication.

Take for instance the "right to privacy" -- the left has had no problem broadening the meaning of "privacy" to include the right to kill an unborn child. As for religious liberty, unless you're a Muslim demanding a Ramadan meal, liberals like Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor, rather than uphold religious liberty, facilitate Barack Obama's effort to redefine the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

Currently, Obamacare is ushering in a new definition of "religious liberty." So far, the Catholic Church has already received fair warning that when it comes to providing insurance that covers birth control and abortion, there are limits on "religious liberty." Moreover, they are also finding out that refusal to conform to progressive edicts could result in the federal government raining down fire and brimstone on the defiant.

So, in conjunction with the updated version of the "right to bear arms," right about now liberals should provide a lexicon that defines religious liberty in the following way: The right for the government to demand, by law, that religious institutions be forced to support policies that contradict their core beliefs.

Take for example the Oklahoma-based companies craft store giant Hobby Lobby and booksellers Mardel Inc. In 2010 Hobby Lobby grossed $2.6 billion in sales, and employed 13,000 people in 455 outlets in 42 states.

Both companies are owned by Bible-believing Christian families who close up shop on the Sabbath and pay full-time employees a minimum wage of $11 per hour versus the federally required $7.25 minimum wage.

Currently, Hobby Lobby is the largest religiously-owned non-Catholic business to have filed a lawsuit against the HHS birth control directive. Yet, despite the fact that they've been founded and run on Christian principles, Oklahoma U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled that Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations and therefore subject to the federal birth control dictate.

Because the Christian-owned company maintains that the mandate "violates the religious beliefs for their owners," it's evident that Hobby Lobby must think "religious liberty" is defined in a way other than how it is being defined by liberals at this time.

Hobby Lobby maintains that the "morning-after pill is tantamount to abortion because it can prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in a woman's womb." Therefore, "defy[ing] a federal mandate requiring it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill" is the company's way of staying true to its core convictions.

In the meantime, for failing to meet what she called "the demanding standard for the extraordinary relief,"Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied a request for an injunction while the Hobby Lobby lawsuit is pending. If the injunction were granted that would have prevented the birth control mandate from beginning on January 1st.

Because it was denied, until the lawsuit reaches the lower courts, Hobby Lobby had better submit to the HHS mandate or, starting January 1, 2013, figure out a way to come up with $1.3 million a day in IRS excise taxes.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/...icas_soul.html

[bsteadman]

O Hobby Lobby, Art Thou a Religious Employer?

American Thinker
Daniel Smyth
1/2/2013

Excerpt:

Last week, Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned chain, said it will defy the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)' contraception/abortifacient mandate. The owners, who oppose abortifacients but not contraceptives, claim that the abortifacient part of the mandate violates the owners' and Hobby Lobby's religious liberty. Since January 1, 2013, Hobby Lobby has faced up to $1.3 million in fines per day for not offering abortifacients to its employees through health insurance plans.

According to HHS and the Obama administration, Hobby Lobby and similar employers are "secular employer[s] ... [that don't] exercise religion." The HHS mandate exempts only "religious employers" who, among other qualifications, primarily serve and employ persons of the same religion. The Obama administration argued the following to prove Hobby Lobby is a secular employer:

The company's pursuits and products are not religious; it operates a chain of retail businesses that sell "a variety of art and craft supplies, home décor, and holiday decorations[.]" ... The company was not organized for carrying out a religious purpose; its Articles of Incorporation makes no reference at all to any religious purpose[.] ... The company does not claim to be affiliated with a formally religious entity such as a church or that any such entity participates in the management of the company. Nor does the company assert that it employs persons of a particular faith; indeed, quite the opposite[.] ... the company "welcomes employees of all faiths or no faith[.]" ... In short, there is no escaping the conclusion that Hobby Lobby is a secular company[.]

However, I've argued before that according to Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most widely used dictionary at the Constitution's ratification, the Founders understood religious employers to be simply "employers who, in any way, are disposed to religious duties or teach religion." Johnson defined "religious" as broadly as "pious; disposed to the duties of religion" and "teaching religion," with "to teach" taking such definitions as "to instruct; to inform" and "to deliver any doctrine or art, or words to be learned." Thus, examples of the Founders' "religious employers" include employers who close their stores on Sundays, pray before business meetings, or display in their front offices such religious items as the Ten Commandments or the Star of David, a Buddha statue, or replicas of Leonardo's "The Last Supper." The Founders' "religious employers" could also be employers whose websites feature a Bible verse or other religious message, such as John 3:16's "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son[.]"

In their lawsuits against the HHS mandate, Hobby Lobby and other religious employers (over 110 employers have sued HHS) have actually proved they're "religious" according to the Founders' understanding of "religious" employers. For example, Hobby Lobby argued it's religious because it employs "full-time chaplains to meet ... employees' spiritual ... needs" and "close[s] all ... [its] stores on Sundays." Also, O'Brien Industrial Holdings, LLS, a Catholic employer with some legal success against the mandate, said that O'Brien is religious because "[p]rominently displayed in the company's lobby is a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus." Another example is the assertion by Catholic-owned Hercules Industries, Inc. that it's religious because, among other reasons, it "has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Catholic parishes, schools, evangelical efforts, and charitable causes[.]"
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View the complete article at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/..._employer.html

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Thank you for expanding on Hobby Lobby and especially for including the except regarding "religious employers" and "secular employers".