Hobby Lobby and the Constitutional Right to Be Stupid

[William769]

Monday's Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case honestly makes me sick.

As a woman, some guy who pays me can now also tell me that my hard-earned company health insurance can't cover my no-baby-candies because he thinks it might have some sort of voodoo power that kills phantom babies. Fortunately, I work at a company where that wouldn't be the case. (Uh, right?)

As a queer woman, it makes me want to shake every LGBT person who doesn't see the broader implications of this. What if a company could tell employees that they won't pay for insurance that covers HIV treatment or health care to transgender people because of owners' "sincerely held religious beliefs"? Justice Samuel Alito, in writing the majority opinion, promised its scope was "very specific." Still, some of us side with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and foresee a potential onslaught of legal challenges testing the limits.

Remember Arizona's hideous religious exemptions law and how ridiculously long it took for Gov. Jan Brewer to veto it? It would have applied to much more than contraceptives. Well, now any company that is majority-owned by five or fewer people can make health care decisions for its female employees based on owners' religious beliefs. That's 90 percent of American businesses, people! Arizona was a hot, dusty, turquoise-wearing drop in the bucket compared to nine out of every 10 companies in the United States and more than half our entire workforce.

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/07/01/op-ed-hobby-lobby-and-constitutional-right-be-stupid

[get the red out]

1. Oh yes

More is coming. This could be a theocratic free-for-all.

[William769]

2. Agreed.

[Lindsay]

3. This, I think, is what bothers me most

about these decisions.

SCOTUS has just said that religious belief trumps science, fact, and a right to be free from the dictates of somebody else's religion.

We are so screwn.

[BrotherIvan]

5. Yes

And exactly as the article stated, it has opened the door for "religious" companies to discriminate. So Mormons who traditionally thought black people had dark skin as a sign of their sin can discriminate. Muslims can make sure they don't pay for any medicines containing pork. Will orthodox people be allowed to force women on their period to stay home because they are unclean? And on and on.

Now belief is more important than science. And the rest of the world will move on as we descend into the Dark Ages.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I have no doubts that you're right.

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. It won't be long till the courts are clogged with similar suits.

[sheshe2]

6. That ruling makes me feel very uneasy...eom

[William769]

7. Yes it does.

We all need to stay sharp and shout our message across.