The Supreme Court finished its term with its usual dramatic flair with the release of the long-waited decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores (which is consolidated with Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius). The two cases represent a classic split in the circuits with the Tenth Circuit agreeing with Hobby Lobby as to the religious claims of the company while the Third Circuit ruled against such claims by Conestoga Wood Specialities Corp. The Court ruled that the Hobby Lobby does have religious rights, but limited the decision to closely-held corporations. Where Citizen’s United recognized that corporations have free speech rights like individuals, Hobby Lobby would do the same thing for religious rights. I will be running a column in the Los Angeles Times in the morning not just addressing this ruling but, once again, highlighting what I consider a far more important case that will be decided just a couple blocks away in the D.C. Circuit — Halbig v. Sebelius. I will be discussing the decisions today at CNN starting at 10 am and continuing to the discussion at 1 pm with Wolf Blitzer.
Hobby Lobby is a fascinating case involving the retail arts and craft chain founded by David Green and owned by his family, which also happen to be Evangelical Christians. The Greens actually do not object to all of the 20 forms of birth control under the ACA. However, they are religiously opposed to supplying four methods: morning-after pills Plan B and Ella as well as two kinds of inter-uterine devices (or IUDs). (The Conestoga company is smaller and owed by Hahn family, who are Mennonite Christians) At a running fine of $100 per employee, Hobby Lobby estimates that the federal mandate would cost it about $1.3 million a day, or roughly $475 million a year.
The religious beliefs of the family are formally integrated into their company: Green family members signed a formal commitment to run the stores according to Christian religious principles, including closing on Sunday, advertising their religious orientation. The company even plays religious music inside their stores.
The Greens challenged the provisions under the and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which imposes a high standard of strict scrutiny for the government to meet when a neutral law “substantially burden[s] a person’s exercise of religion”. (Note some amicus briefs suggest that the mandatory plan should also be barred for these purpose under the Establishment Clause). In 2013, United States District Court Judge Joe Heaton granted the company a temporary exemption from the contraceptive-providing mandate. (Conestoga directly raises free exercise arguments).
In an interesting wrinkle, an April article in Mother Jones alleged that Hobby Lobby’s employee retirement plan has more than $73M invested in mutual funds which include manufacturers of some fo the very contraception devices or drugs cited in the complaint.
The decision has sweeping application – well beyond these companies or the 49 for-profit corporations that have claimed such exemptions. The ruling addresses the very essence of a religious claim and the very essence of a corporate entity.
Closely-held corporations are not as limited as it might seem. I agree with Ginsberg that the implications are sweeping. The closely-held corporations represent a huge number of businesses. As I mentioned on CNN, the large corporations are the least likely to demand such exemptions. There are millions of family businesses that may not object not just to the ACA but renew objections to discrimination laws that force such businesses to serve same-sex weddings or engage in other activities that violate their religious beliefs. This is much like Heller and the recognition of individual gun rights. We are still working out the details on how far that goes years after the decision.
This is a major blow to the Administration which in the last ten days have been found to have violated the fourth amendment and privacy and then found to be in violation of the separation of powers and now found in violation of the first amendment and religious freedom.
This Administration is in free fall. Regular, hard working folks, who don’t care about politics, are fed up w/ government intrusion in their lives. They are fed up w/ the duopoly. They realize that while the Obama administration has been arrogant, incompetent, and possibly felonious, that there is no real “hope” that either party will help them live their lives free of burdensome laws and taxes. This country is ready for a coup by ordinary people taking charge of a political process run amuck. I pray it’s peaceful.
Regarding the first amendment rights of closely held corporations…
If you’re going to ignore the very definition of a corporation to afford it rights, i.e. seeing it as an association of people instead of a fictional entity, then why the limitation in the Hobby Lobby case and not Citizens United?
It’s Hungarian.
What about the shipload full of people who had no health insurance? Oh yeah, screw ’em, they didn’t matter, right? OK, get rid of Obamacare, move on to Single Payer, which we should’ve done all along. Want to get rid of Obamacare, be careful of what you wish for.
Annie – I hardly recognized you with the crewelwork avatar! Is that Dutch?
The government has forgotten its core responsibilities. And Liberal CA is a prime example of the result.
Government is supposed to build and maintain roads, infrastructure, maintain an effective police and fire department, and basically run in the background so people can go about their day. They make laws to keep us safe, and prevent pollution or unsafe or unsanitary working conditions.
Here in CA, our roads are pockmarked with an unbelievable number of potholes. We lose years of our life stuck in gridlock.
And yet Governor Brown has raided Cap & Trade funds for his pet vacation train project. Those funds are supposed to be use to reduce pollution, and yet his train will cause a net increase in pollution. Ridership projections have been proven to be wildly overstated. And how many of those cars stuck on the freeway in LA are commuting daily to San Francisco? It does nothing to alleviate gridlock, or fix our roads. It’s just a pork project so he can show he created some temporary union jobs. But those jobs will not be created in the private sector through the growth of the economy. Oh no. Those jobs will be overpaid by the taxpayers as an additional burden with no benefit. How many people are going to pay almost as much as a 1 hour plane ticket for a ride that will need 3 train changes and will take 4 hours???
doglover:
Quakers already enjoy the right for conscientious objection not to serve in wars.
Ceterum censeo Obamacare delendo est.
“And furthermore in my opinion Obamacare should be repealed.”
I’ve been to the pediatrician, asthma doctor, dentist, and GP this year. Every single time, bar none, when what insurance I have comes up, doctors and staff and patients pour out of various rooms to bitterly complain. Doctors say they can’t accept it and keep their doors open for what it pays. It’s a huge pay cut for them here in CA. And patients say they’re now paying double and no doctor accepts it. Everyone’s wondering how the middle class can survive with this, and how many doctors will just go out of business, or turn their practice into a factory modeled revolving door, spending 5 minutes or less per patient.
Obamacare is the great unifier in the individual insurance market. It doesn’t matter what political party you belong to. If you’re middle class, you can’t afford it.
In “the old days” of a couple of years ago, the health insurance industry was market driven. If customers had a need, the market filled it. They had all sorts of choices for their customers to choose from. Healthy young people could choose catastrophic coverage, which would keep them from getting in financial trouble if they were, say, injured in a car accident. Religious people could choose plans that did not cover abortion. There was something for everyone.
And employees had choices. If I don’t want to wear an abaya or a hijab, well, then I didn’t go work for a mosque. If I wanted a health insurance plan that covered abortions, I didn’t work for a Catholic hospital. It was real simple.
But now the government is trying to, as usual, to take away all consumer choices, and tell consumers they have to have one (extremely expensive) choice, and fine them if they don’t buy it. Government makes a huge mess out of the market when it goes beyond regulating for basic safety. It’s forgotten it’s job.
Now premiums have, as predicted, doubled. If you don’t qualify for a subsidy, your costs of health insurance just increased by hundreds of dollars a month. My premiums went from around $400 for my family of 3 to over $900 a month. My deductible went from $500/person to $6,000. And since it’s an Exchange plan, no doctor I have gone to will accept it. So I STILL have to pay out of pocket to see a doctor, and it doesn’t count towards that obscene deductible. It is naive and incredibly foolish to believe that the middle class can just miraculously absorb such an exorbitant financial hit. The only reason why this has been allowed to continue for as long as it has is because the employer mandate was deliberately delayed until after the election.
But it will hit. And there will be a reckoning for Democrats at the polls. It brings to mind one of Reagan’s mistakes, when he increased the benefits for Medicare, increasing premiums drastically. He was mobbed by the elderly, who swamped his car. I’m surprised they didn’t roll it with him inside.
There will be a reckoning. I hope that Democrats continue to foolishly double down on the Obamacare that they rammed through, having documents in their hands showing the astronomical increase in premiums. Because when this hits the majority of Americans, Democrats won’t be able to get a job in any local government, anywhere. They thought the Medicare increase under Reagan was bad enough to cause riots. You just wait.
There is no way the middle class, or small business owners, can survive a nationwide financial hit like this. And what a moronic thing to do during such a bad economy, expect the middle class to pay thousands more a year for insurance that 75% of doctors in CA won’t accept. It’s political suicide, and it’s cruelty towards the people they promised to represent. It’s negligence on an unbelievable scale.
When the majority of Americans are in the same boat as I am, they’re going to suddenly understand, with painful clarity, why all those critics and doctors associations so passionately opposed it.
Not only some corporations but many individuals believe in the sanctity of life of people already born. We are pro-life for those already born and therefore oppose military engagement. Hence we oppose being forced to contribute a large percent of our tax dollars to facilitating intentional human death through military engagement. Will that religious belief be given similar respect?
YESSSSSS!
Gisleson, it’s paranoia that has led to the incremental erosion of rights and freedoms of the american people. This court is finely on a roll in making some good decisions. Even so, I’m not letting my guard down because hobby lobby is, well, big business, something the court has traditionally brown-nosed.
And thank you Steve H for buying the party line. Not many takers these days.
Let’s get rich
Let’s create a religion, become the founding members and in our Bible state that our God detests minimum wages, paying taxes, tampering with the natural order of nature via artificial measures that keep the environment clean and employees safe as this distorts natures ( and God’s ) natural way of culling the herd etc
Then the founding members start a Staffing Company that other employers can use. What a competitive advantage we’ll have and all legal !
Jay Haley
>
I think we will be seeing all manner of businesses getting ‘religion’. Praise the Lord.
Thank you, Mr Fleischer for your rational response and your rebuke to Mespo. The greatness of this blog, and Mr Turley, is the reasoned thinking of nearly all of the bloggers, there being one exception.
This is not a major blow to Obama, this is a major blow to thinking human beings everywhere. Religious discrimination by large employers has just been legalized. Anyone who thinks their personal way of life is not now at risk simply doesn’t understand how insistent zealots are.
What happens when the religious employers decide to go jihad and start buying out other corporations? If your company is taken over by Mormons, will you have to give up alcohol and cigarettes to keep your job?
None of this will, of course, apply to Muslim-owned businesses because . . . well, because.
While many people will react emotionally according to their preexisting beliefs, I see this as a reaffirmation of property rights.
Many among us have come to believe that the government can impose any mandate on the American people. Fortunately, we are starting to see some pushback.
I don’t think it’s a “major blow” since its effect is limited. However, It will embolden the religious corporations among us like Chick Filet and Hobby Lobby to fulfill their apparently misogynistic agenda but I guess you can work elsewhere if you have the XX chromosome. I’m shocked I’m saying “religious corporations” but since we now know that corporations are people in the aftermath of Citizens United, we must come to know they worship, too.
Viva the ecclesiastical court and Cardinal Alito, too.