Arkady
President
The Hobby Lobby decision relied on an extremely aggressive reading of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, such that even merely being required to buy health insurance that an employee might choose to use to buy certain forms of contraception was treated as an improper imposition on the employer's religious freedom. The court didn't provide much guidance for how it will decide which beliefs trump federal law and which don't, so now we'll get a bunch of litigation by those who think they ought not to have to follow the law because of their beliefs.
Here's an interesting one:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/28/satanists_want_hobby_lobby_style_religious_exemption_from_anti_choice_counseling_law/
Basically, if your religious beliefs should be able to get you out of providing some federally required employee benefits, shouldn't they also let you get out of having to sit through abortion counseling? The anti-abortion laws that require people to receive anti-abortion propaganda before they're allowed to have the medical procedure have been tolerated in the past, by the courts, but what if you claim that such material is against your religion? Should you still have to sit there and listen to it, before you can exercise your right to terminate your pregnancy? Should a doctor who has religious objections to that material have to provide it to his patients? Should a hospital owner that objects to the material have to allow the distribution of the material in his hospital?
There will doubtless be many more such challenges. And they're going to put the courts in the unseemly position of deciding whether someone's religious views are sincere or not, and of deciding how various people's religious views weigh against various governmental goals. Those aren't jobs I want courts to be engaged in.
Here is the statement of faith on which the argument relies:
"I regard any information required by state statute to be communicated or offered to me as a precondition for an abortion (separate and apart from any other medical procedure) is based on politics and not science (“Political Information”). I regard Political Information as a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion by compelling my consideration of the current and future condition of my fetal or embryonic tissue separate and apart from my body. I do not regard Political Information to be scientifically true or accurate or even relevant to my medical decisions. The communication of Political Information to me imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my religious beliefs."
Here's an interesting one:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/28/satanists_want_hobby_lobby_style_religious_exemption_from_anti_choice_counseling_law/
Basically, if your religious beliefs should be able to get you out of providing some federally required employee benefits, shouldn't they also let you get out of having to sit through abortion counseling? The anti-abortion laws that require people to receive anti-abortion propaganda before they're allowed to have the medical procedure have been tolerated in the past, by the courts, but what if you claim that such material is against your religion? Should you still have to sit there and listen to it, before you can exercise your right to terminate your pregnancy? Should a doctor who has religious objections to that material have to provide it to his patients? Should a hospital owner that objects to the material have to allow the distribution of the material in his hospital?
There will doubtless be many more such challenges. And they're going to put the courts in the unseemly position of deciding whether someone's religious views are sincere or not, and of deciding how various people's religious views weigh against various governmental goals. Those aren't jobs I want courts to be engaged in.
Here is the statement of faith on which the argument relies:
"I regard any information required by state statute to be communicated or offered to me as a precondition for an abortion (separate and apart from any other medical procedure) is based on politics and not science (“Political Information”). I regard Political Information as a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion by compelling my consideration of the current and future condition of my fetal or embryonic tissue separate and apart from my body. I do not regard Political Information to be scientifically true or accurate or even relevant to my medical decisions. The communication of Political Information to me imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my religious beliefs."