Good start to week celebrating liberty
Published July 2, 2014
Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, July 1, 2014.
Americans’ religious freedom prevailed this week when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Hobby Lobby’s challenge of Obama-care’s mandates on contraceptives.
The thin margin — justices split 5-4 — demonstrates just how threatened this First Amendment freedom is. One more vote on the government side and America’s founders would have been, as the saying goes, turning in their graves only days before the country celebrates its Declaration of Independence from an overreaching government.
The freedom of citizens to carry out their religious beliefs was so important in the minds of the founders that they placed it first in the Bill of Rights. Government, they knew, had no place in the moral beliefs and practices of the individual. That is as true today as it was then. The justices were right to confirm it.
Those familiar with Hobby Lobby, which appears to be planning to open in Jacksonville, know that its owners’ lives and business practices are governed by their deeply held religious beliefs which include opposition to abortion.
Those beliefs led them to challenge a portion the president’s intrusive health-care law that requires employers to provide workers with insurance coverage that includes free contraceptives.
Make no mistake about it. Hobby Lobby did not file the legal challenge to eliminate all birth-control methods from its employee health insurance coverage, only those that its devoutly Christian owners believe cause abortion.
As quickly as the court’s ruling hit the news wires, Obama-care supporters began their expected howls that twist the truth about what this decision means.
The ruling does not deny contraception coverage to women who work for Hobby Lobby and other similarly owned businesses. Plenty of options remain available under the company’s health insurance coverage.
And as with workers at all businesses, those on the Hobby Lobby payroll who dislike the company’s health insurance plan are free to find jobs elsewhere with companies that offer plans with a wider choice of contraceptives.
Those with opposing views to Hobby Lobby would have you believe that the case is about a woman’s “right” to choose contraceptives. In reality, the case is about government forcing an employer to pay for contraceptives against his or her moral values.
This week’s Supreme Court ruling, despite its narrow margin, is a welcome victory for freedom of religion. How appropriate for it to come down as Americans all across this great land celebrate the deepest roots of our freedom from government tyranny.
