This Blows: Obamacare Birth Control Mandate Struck Down By Appeals Court Over Religious Freedom

[cali]

Concerns.

A divided appeals court panel is siding with Ohio business owners who challenged the birth control mandate under the new federal health care law.

The business owners are two brothers who say the mandate to provide contraceptive coverage would make them violate their Roman Catholic beliefs.

The ruling Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is one of many on the birth control issue, which likely will be resolved by the Supreme Court.

The appeals court panel says the mandate limits the right of free exercise of religion.

The brothers are Francis and Philip M. Gilardi. They say they don't want to provide contraceptives like the Plan B pill for their employees. The Gilardis own Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics of Sidney, Ohio.

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/obamacare-birth-control_n_4192651.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[Warren Stupidity]

1. 30 years of conservative appointments and obstruction have paid off handsomely.

[arthritisR_US]

9. That is why Howard Dean's 50 state strategy was so important :( nt

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I don't get it. How is it not imposing the brothers Roman Catholic beliefs

on others?

[cali]

4. you get it just fine

that's exactly what it does.

[cali]

3. Look who wrote the majority opinion: Janice Rodgers Brown

Home> Politics
Appeals Court Deals Blow to Contraceptive Mandate
WASHINGTON November 1, 2013 (AP)

A divided appeals court panel sided Friday with Ohio business owners who challenged the birth control mandate under the new federal health care law.

The business owners are two brothers, Francis and Philip M. Gilardi, who own Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics of Sidney, Ohio., and challenged the mandate on religious grounds. They say the mandate to provide contraceptive coverage would force them to violate their Roman Catholic beliefs and moral values by providing contraceptives such as the morning-after pill for their employees. The law already exempts houses of worship from the requirement.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is one of several on the birth control issue, which likely will be resolved by the Supreme Court. There are at least three other rulings by federal appeals courts on the mandate: One sided with Oklahoma businesses; and two sided with the Obama administration in challenges brought by Pennsylvania and Michigan companies.

Writing for the majority, Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote that the mandate "trammels the right of free exercise—a right that lies at the core of our constitutional liberties—as protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

Brown, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said that the mandate presented the Gilardis with a "Hobson's 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 become complicit in a grave moral wrong."

Friday's ruling reversed a lower court ruling that had denied the Gilardis' request for a preliminary injunction to block the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing the mandate against them as business owners. The appeals court ruled that the lower court erred when it concluded the Gilardis were unlikely to succeed on the merits, and sent the case back to the lower court to consider other factors for an injunction.

<snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/appeals-court-deals-blow-contraceptive-mandate-20753812

[redqueen]

14. "A grave moral wrong"... she is a piece of work.

These misogynist shitbags make me sick.

[Gothmog]

5. They need to appeal this to the entire DC Cir. Court

One of the judges on this opinion is a nut case http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/01/2876381/need-know-severely-conservative-judge-just-ruled-birth-control/

Senate Democrats waged an unsuccessful effort to filibuster Judge Brown’s nomination during the Bush Administration — largely because of her strident opposition to programs such as Social Security — but that filibuster was eventually defeated after Republicans threatened to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters of judicial nominees. The deal that allowed Judge Brown to be confirmed also paved the way for Judge Priscilla Owen’s nomination. Yesterday evening, Judge Owen authored an opinion reinstating a Texas anti-abortion law blocked by a lower court judge.

There is a lesson here for Democrats trying to decide whether to invoke the nuclear opinion in the D.C. Circuit fight that Senate Republicans started this week. When Republicans had the courage to demand what they wanted and put a serious threat behind it, they got two of the most conservative judges in the country. If Senate Democrats follow suit — either by forcing Republicans to cave or by carrying through on a threat to nuke the filibuster — they will also win their fight to get President Obama’s nominees confirmed.

[redqueen]

16. But will they? nt

[notadmblnd]

6. Francis and Philip M. Gilardi won't be providing contraceptives to their employees

Their group health insurance should be providing it. Those whom it is offered to, have a choice, use it or not.

So how does it violate the Gilardi bros right to freedom of religion?

[Keefer]

13. Because...

They argue since they are paying for the insurance, they shouldn't be obligated to "buy" BC. .

[notadmblnd]

15. Not to many companies big or small that pay ALL of their employees health insurance costs

They must be very special Christians.

[nomorenomore08]

17. They're always "very special Christians." That's kind of the point

whether they admit it or not.

[lastlib]

22. Logic is wasted on these RWNJs

they bend the law to fit their views--not the other way around. (And they claim to be opposed to "judicial activism"...... . . )

[get the red out]

7. I am so sick of Religion getting what they want

I am disgusted that THEIR religion has to be suffered by their employees. DISGUSTING amount of control given to religion in this country, which is used as a bludgeon on women in most cases.

[KY5]

8. Who wants to start a religion?

Making cuts to programs for the poor will violate our beliefs.

[Chan790]

11. I'd be game except I'm already a minister of 4 internet religions. n/t

[Zorra]

10. Another reason capitalism sucks. If your employer is a RW religious wacko, you are unreasonably

Last edited Fri Nov 1, 2013, 05:29 PM - Edit history (1)

subject to her/his superstitious nonsense, and you are left with a choice: Quit your job, or stay at your job, and suffer possible harm because your employer is deranged.

I suggest we start a boycott of products distributed by Freshway Foods

Notice how only certain status quo religions and their respective religious beliefs have the ability to trump civil democratic rights?

[kiranon]

12. Those companies using religious beliefs to avoid women's

or others health issues should not receive any federal grants, subsidies or other help. It seems that any federal assistance should violate their religious beliefs as well. The left hand cannot grab what the right hand abhors on religious grounds.

[nomorenomore08]

18. "Mankind will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

Days like today I tend to think Diderot was right...

[ismnotwasm]

19. Why does "freedom of Religion"

Trump basic science so often? This is disgusting and asinine.

[surrealAmerican]

20. It's a bad ruling, and ...

... if taken to its logical conclusion, would mean that if your employer is a Christian Scientist, your employer provided insurance wouldn't be required to cover any medical care - only prayer. That's not what insurance is; that's not what religious freedom is; and that's not what health care is.

[cali]

21. kick.