Tomorrow, nine justices in black robes will begin hearing oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.. At issue is the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act which compels the inclusion of contraceptives (including abortifacients) under employer-provided healthcare.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
The court will ultimately decide whether Americans still have the right to free exercise of religion* with regard to how they live their lives, including how they operate their own business.
The Becket Fund is representing the Green Family. You can get more information about the case HERE.
In the meantime, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, suggests that all Christians pray for a favorable decision in this case, asking God to protect American’s religious liberty ~
Lord God, Our Father, you are the Righteous Judge over all the earth. We pray that you will have mercy on the United States as the Supreme Court hears a case that will shape the balance between government power and freedom of religion.
Give words to the attorneys for Hobby Lobby as they argue that our free exercise of religion includes how Christians live and work, not just what we do when we gather for worship, so that whatever we do in word or deed, we may do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
God, enlighten the Justices of the Supreme Court to acknowledge that you alone are Lord of our consciences. Give the Court humility to recognize that you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that you have instituted human government so that your people may serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before you, all the days of our life.
And Lord, give us grace and boldness to use the religious liberty that we still have to make your truth and mercy known. Amen.
Related:
* To clarify the respondents’ argument – from The ACA’s Heavy Burden at National Review Online ~
While the issue is at heart a constitutional one, Hobby Lobby is not in this instance appealing to the First Amendment but rather to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was passed by a unanimous House, a near-unanimous Senate, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, and certified as constitutional as applied to the federal government in a 2006 Supreme Court decision. The act sets a high standard that the federal government must meet when it burdens the free exercise of religion and was enacted in response to court decisions that had narrowed First Amendment protections. It is intended to reinstate the “Sherbert test,” which holds that in a case in which the involved parties hold a sincere religious belief and the federal government places a substantial burden on the exercise of that belief, then the federal government must both prove a “compelling state interest” in burdening religious exercise and — perhaps most important in this case — demonstrate that it has sought to secure that compelling interest in the least restrictive fashion[…]
The decision will be only incidentally about what kind of health insurance we have — it will be about what kind of country we have.
Supreme Court Should Uphold Hobby Lobby’s Religious Freedom, Overturn Obama’s HHS Mandate
