{"id":39493,"date":"2013-11-01T12:38:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T18:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/dc-appeals-court-strikes-down-the-birth-control-coverage-mandate.html"},"modified":"2013-11-04T07:13:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T14:13:17","slug":"dc-appeals-court-strikes-down-the-birth-control-coverage-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/dc-appeals-court-strikes-down-the-birth-control-coverage-mandate.html","title":{"rendered":"DC Appeals Court strikes down the Birth Control Coverage Mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"
Given the array of opinions on this in various federal appeals appeals courts, there's no doubt it's going to be finally decided by SCOTUS. Which, given some of the zanies there, is worrisome.<\/p>\n

Of course, if the ACA had been crafted to get employers out of the health insurance loop, none of this would be occurring. But given that it was intentionally crafted\/hobbled as an incremental change, retaining as much of the existing health insurance system as possible, it was too radical of an idea to go to something like a single-payer setup as\u00a0Canada has.<\/p>\n

The DC appeals court rejected the idea that\u00a0just because Citizens United<\/i> established that corporations have freedom of speech, they must also have freedom of religion (or, at least, it didn't find that SCOTUS had yet so ruled). \u00a0And it rejected that a secular organization inherits the religious freedoms of its owners. \u00a0But it did find that if owners are compelled by law to run their business a certain way that they morally oppose, the owners' religious freedoms are, in fact, being infringed upon.<\/p>\n

'In other words, the Gilardis are burdened when they are pressured to choose between violating their religious beliefs in managing their selected plan or paying onerous penalties. … \u00a0The contraceptive mandate demands that owners like the Gilardis meaningfully approve and endorse the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in their companies\u2019 employer- provided plans, over whatever objections they may have. nd the burden becomes substantial because the government commands compliance by giving the Gilardis a Hobson\u2019s choice. They can either abide by the sacred tenets of their faith, pay a penalty of over $14 million, and cripple the companies they have spent a lifetime building, or they \u00a0become complicit in a grave moral wrong. If that is not \u201csubstantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs,\u201d we fail to see how the standard could be met.'<\/i><\/p>\n

I don't see how this can coherently stand, as it allows any business to exempt itself from nearly any regulation. \u00a0"I believe women shouldn't work outside the home, so anti-discrimination laws don't apply to me." "I believe the Minimum Wage is a direct conflict with the Parables of Jesus, so I don't think I should have to adhere to it." "I believe wine is a gift of the gods, so preventing me from selling it to minors is an infringement on my religious beliefs." \u00a0Where does it stop?<\/p>\n

The appeals court claims that RFRA (the act under which the suit was brought) avoids those extremes, by allowing compelling government interest to prevail — but then decides that allowing free access to contraception is not compelling.<\/i> And even if it were, the appeals court claims, infringing on religious freedoms would not be the narrowest and least intrusive way of going about dealing with it.<\/p>\n

I disagree, but I suspect what we saw here from the DC Appeals Court will have some strong echoes in how SCOTUS rules when it finally takes the matter up.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Talking Points Memo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

BREAKING:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Obamacare Birth Control Mandate Struck Down By Appeals Court<\/a>
\n WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided appeals court panel is siding with Ohio business owners who challenged the birth control mandate under the new federal health care law.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the array of opinions on this in various federal appeals appeals courts, there's no doubt it's going to be finally decided by SCOTUS. Which, given some of the zanies there, is worrisome. Of course, if the ACA had been crafted to get employers out of the health insurance loop, none of this would be … Continue reading “DC Appeals Court strikes down the Birth Control Coverage Mandate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,134,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-health-care","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43735,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/22\/making-affordable-care-unaffordable.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":0},"title":"Making Affordable Care Unaffordable","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Jul-14 1:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, the irony that we make it more difficult the poor to get affordable coverage, because some individuals\u00a0didn't want the subsidies so that they couldn't afford it and therefore could opt out because it would be an economic hardship. \u00a0No, not irony, insanity.Speaking of sanity, in a sane world, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28135,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/05\/and-prop-8-heads-probably-to-scotus.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":1},"title":"And Prop 8 heads (probably) to SCOTUS","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Jun-12 11:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ninth Circut declined to rehear the case en banc, which means Prop 8 supporters have 90 days to appeal to the US Supreme Court. Given the justices there are about to head out for their summer vacation later this month, it seems likely they wouldn't decide on hearing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/08\/is-there-a-new-chance-to-restrain-campaign-spending.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":2},"title":"Is there a new chance to restrain campaign spending?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jul-15 11:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"Nice to think so, but despite an 11-0 vote by the Federal Appeals Court, the only vote that will ultimately count is what SCOTUS eventually rules on further appeal -- and I have no confidence that they have any desire to restrain said spending.The same goes for the other proposals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/utahs-gay-marriage-ban-is-struck-down.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":3},"title":"Utah’s gay marriage ban is struck down","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Jun-14 2:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another one that may end up with SCOTUS, unless they decide to just let these rulings stand, but it coming from a federal appeals court lends it extra oomph. The key here is that the 10th Circuit includes Colorado, which may mean my own state's shameful constitutional ban\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43495,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/12\/more-twists-and-turns-in-utah-gay-marriage-case.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":4},"title":"More twists and turns in Utah gay marriage case","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-Jul-14 12:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It gets difficult figuring out who's staying which decision by whom about what in the Utah case (which affects Colorado, under the 10th Circuit), but the latest is that the Federal Appeals Court has said that an order by a lower court requiring the recognition of 1,300 marriages of same-sex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/08\/and-merrick-garland-returns-to-work.html","url_meta":{"origin":39493,"position":5},"title":"And Merrick Garland returns to work","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Feb-17 2:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Garland has been sitting out hearing cases since he was contacted by the Obama Administration about being a nominee for SCOTUS, as is traditional (to reduce potentially having to recuse himself from a case he himself heard). A year later, his nomination never acted upon by a GOP-dominated Senate that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39554,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39493\/revisions\/39554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}