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This Won’t Turn Out Well
Weekly Standard commentary by Ashley McGuire
June 12, 2013
On August 1, the one-year "safe harbor" for religious charities objecting to provisions of Obamacare will end. Starting then, these nonprofit employers will be forced to violate their religious beliefs or pay large fines. In charge of collecting the fines will be our recently newsworthy friends at the Internal Revenue Service.
Filed under: CommentariesContraceptionThe Catholic Association
Obama, God, and the Profits
Becket Fund commentary by Mark Rienzi
May 31, 2013
In courtrooms across the country-including one yesterday in Philadelphia-Department of Justice lawyers told judges that profit-making businesses with religious objections to the HHS contraceptive mandate cannot exercise religion. Profit-making business apparently can pursue just one goal: making money. Business owners must check their religious values at the door.
Filed under: CommentariesReligious libertyBecket Fund
Targeting of crisis pregnancy centers draws sharp criticism
Catholic News Agency
May 31, 2013
A bill introduced in congress allowing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate crisis pregnancy centers has sparked a fiery reaction that abortion clinics warrant far greater scrutiny. "It's outrageous to target generous people who are out there to give women a real choice," Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser for The Catholic Association, told CNA May 30.
Filed under: AbortionThe Catholic Association
Religious Freedom: A Civil-Rights Issue
National Review Online
May 29, 2013
People who are opposed to same-sex marriage based on their religious beliefs can be accused of marital-status discrimination in addition to sexual-orientation discrimination. Such individuals will increasingly be required to check their religious beliefs at the entrance to the public square - and with an ever expanding public square, that means confining religious practice to the home and house of worship.
Filed under: Religious libertyConscience rights
Appeals courts mull ‘Obamacare’ contraception mandate
Washington Times
May 26, 2013
Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based craft-store corporation and most well known of the corporate plaintiffs, made its case before the entire 10th Circuit Court of Appeals the next day, and the 3rd and 6th circuit courts are scheduled to hear arguments from two more plaintiffs Thursday and June 11.
Adele Keim, a lawyer at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, attended the Denver arguments while her colleague, Kyle Duncan, delivered arguments on behalf of the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby. She said it was clear that the eight judges - it was an "en banc" hearing, so all of the circuit judges attended instead of only three - were taking the matter seriously.
Filed under: LawsuitsBecket FundConscience rights
Hobby Lobby appeal tests limits of federal birth-control coverage mandate
AP
May 23, 2013
In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. asked a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argued that businesses - not just the currently exempted religious groups - should be allowed to seek exception from that section of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs.
Filed under: LawsuitsContraception
Pro-Life groups also targeted by IRS
National Catholic Register
May 21, 2013
"We had everything in order, and one of their agents shared that our application was ready to go through," Martinek explained. "But before that could happen, each member of the board would have to sign a letter stating we would not protest Planned Parenthood." The case went to Thomas More Society special counsel Sally Wagenmaker, who was shocked at the request the IRS had made of her new clients. "This was disturbing, content-based scrutiny," Wagenmaker said. "We have freedom of speech. We have religious freedom, and we have the right to peaceable assembly, and they seemed determined to deprive this organization of all of those protections. It's the type of activity that can have a chilling effect on our constitutional rights."
Filed under: LawsuitsReligious libertyThomas More Law Center
Redefining marriage: Religious liberty is at risk
Teresa Collett in Pioneer Press
May 9, 2013
Redefining marriage creates new liability under the anti-discrimination laws for "marital discrimination" where none exists now, and will expand claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. The exemption for religious organizations is so narrow that most charitable activities engaged in by people of faith will not be covered. There is absolutely no protection for private individuals and businesses. Licensed professionals and students are not protected from requirements that they affirm same-sex marriage.
Filed under: CommentariesReligious liberty
Top court may hear N.Y. lawsuit over prayers
USA Today
May 6, 2013
David Cortman, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said using prayer to open public meetings is a long-standing American tradition that has been upheld by the Supreme Court. "Nonetheless, new legal attacks by people and activist groups claiming to be 'offended' by the way private citizens voluntarily pray have created significant confusion in the lower courts," he said.
Filed under: LawsuitsReligious libertyAlliance Defending Freedom
How the FDA’s Plan B Decision Puts Minors At Risk
Anna Franzonello in National Review Online
May 1, 2013
In his most recent study on so-called "emergency contraception," Dr. James Trussell, whose research has been cited by the FDA, states that, "to make an informed choice, women must know that [emergency contraception pills] . . . may at times inhibit implantation." Over-the-counter access of Plan B removes the opportunity for teens to be informed by a health-care provider about all of Plan B's mechanisms of action, including its ability to end life.
Filed under: LawsuitsContraceptionAmericans United for Life
US bishops name religious freedom advocate as spokeswoman
CNA
April 30, 2013
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has hired religious liberty attorney and mother of six Kim Daniels as spokesperson for conference president Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. The bishops' conference said April 29 that it "welcomes" Daniels, who brings with her experience as director of Catholic Voices USA, a lay Catholic organization that "works to bring the positive message of the Church across a broad range of issues to the public square."
Filed under: Religious libertyU.S. Conf. Catholic Bishops
Explaining the Outliers in the HHS Mandate Cases
Mark Rienzi in Virginia Law Review
April 22, 2013
Ongoing conflict over the contraceptive mandate promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has resulted in more than two dozen lawsuits by profit-making businesses and their owners seeking protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"). To date, the businesses and their owners are winning handily, having obtained preliminary relief in seventeen of the cases, and being denied relief in only six.
Filed under: LawsuitsReligious libertyContraception
President Obama’s Dangerous Precedent
National Catholic Register editorial
April 21, 2013
Tens of thousands of citizens, including Catholic bishops, administrators of universities, hospitals and social agencies, private business owners, constitutional scholars and ordinary laypeople, flooded the online comments box. Some statements offered legal analyses that explained why the mandate violates the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Pro-life business owners affirmed their commitment to the sanctity of human life. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a March 20 statement filed by Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses rejected the narrow religious exemption that offers no protection for Catholic "organizations that contribute most visibly to the common good through the provision of health, educational and social services."
Filed under: ContraceptionU.S. Conf. Catholic BishopsConscience rights
On “Emergency Contraceptives” and Religious Liberty
Ed Whelan in National Review Online
April 18, 2013
...religious believers who oppose the destruction of the lives of unborn human beings have ample basis to object to being dragooned to provide Plan B, Ella, and copper IUDs in their health plans.
Filed under: LawsuitsAbortionContraception
Cruz Was Right: HHS Mandate Puts Religious Liberty Under Assault
William Saunders and Mary Novick in LifeNews
April 15, 2013
Is "the freedom to worship" the same as "freedom of religion"? No it isn't. The freedom of religion entails much more than being able to "worship;" it includes being able to live out your faith. And that means to conduct your affairs - for-profit or nonprofit -so as to honor your deepest beliefs.
Filed under: CommentariesReligious libertyAmericans United for Life
