Hobby Lobby continues Battle over HHS mandate

Christian-owned crafts store Hobby Lobby is in court today continuing their battle with the Obama administration over the Health and Human Services birth control mandate.  The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will represent Hobby Lobby for the hearing in front of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Becket Fund says, quote, “The full court will consider whether to halt enforcement of the HHS mandate, which forces Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned-and-operated business, to provide and pay for emergency contraceptives, such as the “morning-after pill” and “week-after pill.”

The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argues that businesses — not just the currently exempted religious groups  — should be allowed to seek exception from that part of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs.

“They ought to be able — just like a church, just like a charity — to have the right to opt out of a provision that infringes on their religious beliefs,” said Kyle Duncan, who will argue before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Green family, the founders of Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and a sister company, Christian booksellers Mardel Inc.

The Greens contend that emergency contraception is tantamount to abortion because it can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. They also object to providing coverage for certain kinds of intrauterine devices.

Lower courts have rejected Hobby Lobby’s claim, saying that for-profit businesses aren’t covered by an exemption added to the law for religious organizations. That exemption applies to churches themselves, but not to affiliated nonprofit corporations, like hospitals, that do not rely primarily on members of the faith as employees.

In a decision issued late last year, a federal judge concluded simply, “Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations.”

But U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton in Oklahoma City also wrote that “the court is not unsympathetic” to Hobby Lobby’s dilemma and that the question of compelling employer health coverage for certain procedures “involves largely uncharted waters.”

Other businesses in multiple states are challenging the contraception mandate, too. Hobby Lobby is the most prominent company making the claim, and it is the first to be heard by a federal appeals court. The U.S. Justice Department will argue for the government that the contraception mandate should stay.

The 10th Circuit opted to hear the case before all nine judges, not the typical three-judge panel, indicating the case’s importance.