• Hobby Lobby v Obamacare To The Supreme Court

Long story Short: Hobby Lobby is a hobbyist story catering to people who dabble in arts and crafts, run by a very Christian family. They have said that it is against their Christian beliefs to force them to provide contraception and abortion in the health care insurance they provide to their employees. They have spend gobs of money fighting Obamacare.

Obama basically has told Hobby Lobby and the Catholic Church, and also importantly Catholic Charities (who handle among other things adoption services in a Catholic, Christian principled manner), among others that you all can just shut down if you have to but you must provide these services and procedures in your insurance, even if it's against your religious beliefs.

Hobby Lobby has gone through two or three layers of court proceedings and the last two decisions gave exact opposite decisions, one saying that they don't have to go along with it on the basis of religious beliefs, the other that they must indeed comply.

The LA Times is arguing that it is preposterous that a company or corporation (or even perhaps an organization like Catholic Charities) can in and of itself have religious beliefs. But a company or organization was found by this court to be a group of people, people with beliefs all the same, when the Supreme Court found a few years ago that corporations, companies, organizations and political action groups have the right to speak out, spend money on advertising and donate money to campaigns - just like any person.

This infuriated the Democrats, and it has them very upset now, today, because it could be the same general principle that ultimately gives Hobby Lobby the freedom to decline to offer medical services to their employees that run against their religious convictions.  And if they win, all companies, all employers and organizations - including Catholic Charities - will most likely be able to opt out.

God willing.    -Jz

Today's LA Times Editorial:

The 10th Circuit, citing the Citizens United decision holding that corporations have a 1st Amendment right to communicate about political campaigns, concluded that Hobby Lobby likewise had a right to religious freedom. But while there was long-standing precedent that some corporations have free-speech rights, the notion that profit-making businesses engage in the exercise of religion is a novel — and nonsensical — one.