Hobby Lobby Must Cover Contraception For Employees, Judge Rules

[DonViejo]

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Nov 19, 2012 at 8:20 pm

A federal judge ruled Monday night that the Hobby Lobby craft store chain must offer its 13,000 employees contraceptive coverage without a co-pay, as mandated by Obamacare.
Hobby Lobby sued to deny such coverage in September, citing conservative evangelical owner David Green’s personal religious objections to certain types of birth control that fall under Obamacare’s contraception mandate. In particular, the company sought to deny its employees coverage for the morning after pill, commonly known as Plan B.

But on Monday night, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton denied the request in a 28-page ruling, pointing out that religious institutions have already been given exemptions from covering contraception, and that Hobby Lobby does not qualify since it is a private business:

“However, Hobby Lobby and Mardel [its partner company] are not religious organizations,” the ruling states. “Plaintiffs have not cited, and the court has not found, any case concluding that secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion.”

Hobby Lobby’s attorney said the companies’ owners, the Green family, plan to appeal.

-snip-

Full article:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/19/1219011/hobby-lobby-judge/

[RomneyLies]

1. sounds like Hobby Lobby is set to waste millions on this

When they go bankrupt fighting losing lawsuits, I wonder if they'll blame it all on Obamacare?

[MountainLaurel]

3. Of course it will be Obama's fault

For being so-called fans of personal responsibility, these folks have a persecution complex a mile wide.

[GoCubsGo]

4. If they go bankrupt, it will be because they sell shit that nobody wants.

Only part of their business is crafts and sewing supplies. Two-thirds of what they sell in their stores is junky decorative crap, like cheap plaster statues, cheap baskets, cheap silk flowers and cheap vases, cheap decorative furniture, cheap wall "art"... They'll sell a few of them, but the rest wind up getting marked down, and likely sold at a loss just to get rid of them.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Good. What a horrible store.

Nothing but CHEAP Chinese-made GARBAGE that they wind up having to mark down in order to get rid of it. My town has one, and it and Walmart are the only places around where one can find crafts and sewing supplies. I was in it a few years ago, and got the creeps, but I couldn't really figure out why--until I listened to the music they were piping on the sound system. I couldn't quite place it at first. Then, I realized that it's the same stuff we heard in church when I was a kid. Very off-putting, and not just because I am now an agnostic.

[Dubster]

5. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)

[Sunlei]

6. Insurance companies cries of woe, they seem to hate preventative healthcare.

[NYC Liberal]

7. Judge Heaton sums it up perfectly with that excerpt:

"However, Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations,” the ruling states. “Plaintiffs have not cited, and the court has not found, any case concluding that secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion."

Corporations do not have rights.