...No, but pretty damn important none the less.
Good news on the religious freedom front and in the fight against the free contraception mandate imposed by the federal healthcare law aka ObamaCare and specifically with Hobby Lobby's efforts in court to be exempted from this mandate.
From NewsOK:
A federal appeals court in Denver has reversed a lower court's decision to deny Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.'s quest for an injunction against part of the Affordable Care Act that requires it to cover the cost of emergency contraceptives for some of its employees.
In a 168-page ruling issued Thursday, the appellate court sent Hobby Lobby case back to a lower court for further review.
The panel of nine appellate court judges who heard arguments in the case in May ruled unanimously that Hobby Lobby and its affiliated Christian bookstore chain Mardel have the right to sue over the Affordable Care Act.
The ruling is a blow to the federal government's argument that as for-profit corporations, the companies cannot claim that the health care law is a violation of constitutionally protected religious freedoms.
Five of the nine judges found that Hobby Lobby meets at least part of the legal standard to receive a temporary injunction against the health care law while its lawsuit is ongoing.
The other four judges said the company fully meets the legal standard and that the appellate court should order the lower court to grant the company an injunction.
Hobby Lobby's lawsuit will now head back to U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, which earlier ruled against Hobby Lobby's quest for relief from the health care law.
Beginning in July, the company faces fines of as much as $1.3 million a day for failing to comply with the health care law.
Of course, as free market types, we're perplexed by this distinction between for-profit and non-profits in the given context, as in, what the hell is the federal government doing in the health insurance business in the first place?
Somehow other lines of business from the auto manufacturing industry to the bar and restaurant industry can provide a dizzying array of options for customers without being told what cars to make or what to put on the menu or on tap by the federal government. And if they can't figure out what the public wants, they go out of business. No harm, no foul.* Why should the health insurance industry be any different?
No matter, we'll take these victories in shoving it up ObamaCare's wazoo where we can.
And in totally related news and in the wake of the Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Prop. 8, the President moved quickly to assure everybody that despite those victories for proponents of same-sex marriage, he would not force churches to perform same-sex marriages.
Of course, we were thrilled with this monumentally magnanimous gesture towards the rule of law and constitutional republicanism as dubious as his actions have been in those areas.
However, remembering this is the same person who is forcing Catholic health insurance providers to provide free contraceptive and abortive devices, his reassurances have, in our humble opinion, the staying power of a puddle of water on a strip of pavement on an August afternoon in Yuma.
* Any Chick Hearn reference automatically raises the quality of your post/article by 15%-28%. This advice is free of charge. You're welcome.
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1 comment:
Isn't this surreal? The Feds don't want you to buy your plastic models of Sopwith Camels from a place that doesn't provide free condoms for its employees.
Yep. That's what old George Washington and the boys fought for.
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