After a denied emergency appeal by Justice Sonya Sotomayor, Hobby Lobby now faces a daily fine of $1.3 million beginning on Jan 1 unless they begin paying for contraceptive insurance coverage for their employees that include abortifacients, something they feel violates their First Amendment rights:
REUTERS – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to block enforcement starting next week of a requirement in President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare overhaul that some companies provide insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices.
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Sotomayor, who hears emergency appeals from the 10th Circuit, said it was not “indisputably clear” that Hobby Lobby and Mardel deserved an injunction, noting that lower courts have been divided in similar cases on whether temporary relief is proper.
“Even without an injunction pending appeal, the applicants may continue their challenge to the regulations in the lower courts,” and following a final judgment ask the Supreme Court at that time to consider their appeal, she said.
Sotomayor did not rule on the merits of the companies’ religious-based claims.
I gotta say this really ticks me off. Because of Obamacare being forced down our throats, the owners of Hobby Lobby now face violating their religious beliefs, suffering under a penalty that will surely kill the business, or just closing the business down themselves and firing some 50,000 employees – all because our dictator-in-chief feels that contraception should be provided by employers in health insurance. No, it’s not good enough to let employees pay for it themselves if they want to add it to their policy. No, he wants employers to pay for it.
Ugh. I really don’t like feeling this way about my president.