Catholic Family Biz Scores Win Over ObamaCare Mandate
Basic Rights: A court in Colorado has ruled that, contrary to DOJ arguments, Americans do not have to choose between giving up their faith or giving up their business. Freedom of religion also applies to the free marketplace.
The Newland family of Colorado and the heating and air conditioning business they run are not quite as famous as CEO Dan Cathy and his Chick-fil-A restaurant chain — at least not yet.
The granting of an injunction by Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court in Colorado saying they do not have to comply with the Health and Human Services rule that they provide contraception coverage may change that.
Chick-fil-A had to deal with threats from mayors in Boston and Chicago to not permit the franchise to open new stores because of the owners' personal belief in the biblical definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
Hercules Industries, the Newland family business that manufactures heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) products, faced the ultimate threat from the Department of Justice — stop acting on your faith or shut down altogether.
The Newlands are devout Catholics and like the religious institutions that have filed suit against the Obama administration's mandate that their health insurance cover contraceptive services, the Newlands filed suit against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius when they were told the mandate applied to small businesses run by Catholics as well as Catholic religious institutions.
Since Hercules Industries would be required to begin offering the new coverage when its self-insured plan renews on Nov. 1, Alliance Defending Freedom, the group representing Hercules, has requested a preliminary injunction that could prevent the government from enforcing the mandate against the company by Aug. 1, the date when the company would need to begin the process of making changes to its plan.
In the Department of Justice's filing in Newland v. Sebelius — a suit brought by William, Paul and James Newland, and their sister, Christine Ketterhagen, DOJ made the assertion — worthy of Stalinist Russia — that Hercules Industries has "made no showing of a religious belief which requires that (it) engage in the (HVAC) business."
No, their faith does not require them to open up an HVAC business, but it does require them to act in all aspects of their lives and dealings with others in accordance with their faith. They argued that the mandate to provide contraceptive coverage or face existential fines placed an undue burden on their First Amendment right to practice their faith. The court agreed.
In his order, Kane, appointed by President Jimmy Carter, said the government's arguments "are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion.
"As the Tenth Circuit has noted, 'there is a strong public interest in the free exercise of religion even where that interest may conflict (with another statutory scheme) ...' Accordingly, the public interest favors entry of an injunction in this case."
The injunction applies only to the Newlands and their family business and is temporary, but a way to kill ObamaCare has been found. Its penalties may have been ruled by the Supreme Court to be a constitutional tax, but ObamaCare's shredding of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty is definitely not constitutional.
"Religious liberty rights don't stop at the storefront door," agreed Hannah Smith, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents plaintiffs in similar suits. "This decision portends the demise of the current administration's attempts to drive religious activity from the public square and confine it within the four walls of a church."
Amen to that. |
