Hobby Lobby Decision a Victory for Religious Freedom

Today is a victory for religious freedom across America. The Supreme Court rightly affirmed that the Obama administration cannot require family-owned companies to provide a product or service in violation of their religious beliefs. It upholds the idea that companies can have a conscience.

There are many reasons to oppose Obamacare, but the contraceptives mandate strikes at the core of our constitutional rights – freedom of religion. The President believes that universal health care is a right; and he places it above the rights of employers to freely exercise their religious beliefs.

But only one of these is a right guaranteed by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. The First Amendment prevents the government from establishing laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion. This decision rejects the President’s overreach of authority and restores religious rights to the people.

Under Obamacare, employers providing health insurance to employees must cover 20 forms of birth control, including the morning after pill, on their insurance plans. In 2012, Hobby Lobby challenged the regulation because of concerns regarding the morning after pill. While Hobby Lobby already covers 16 forms of contraception in their health insurance plans, they decline to cover those that can destroy an embryo, which violates some churches’ doctrine on the sanctity of life.

Hobby Lobby is not alone in its concerns. More than 90 cases were filed representing 300 plaintiffs challenging Obamacare’s “contraceptives mandate.”