American Jews and Religious Freedom: Thoughts on the Hobby Lobby Case - Douglas Aronin

« The Supreme Court's decision, at the end of its most recent term, in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., has ignited a storm of controversy out of all proportion to its rather minor practical significance.   The decision's critics appear to consider it a major assault on women's "reproductive freedom," to use a common buzz phrase.  Its defenders see it as a milestone in the protection of religious liberty.

They're both wrong.  The critics are wrong because the decision in the Hobby Lobby case — in which a commercial employer sought a religious conscience exemption from the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employer-provided health coverage include coverage for contraceptive services at no extra cost to the employee – ultimately turned on the ease with which the government could assure the employees access to the mandated coverage without infringing the employers' religious liberty.  The decision's defenders are wrong if they believe that the case signals any diminution of the Supreme Court's ongoing hostility to claims for infringement of the right to the free exercise of religion.  Indeed, the Hobby Lobby case was not a constitutional case at all.  It involved, rather, the interpretation of Congress's intent in passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).»

American Jews and Religious Freedom: Thoughts on the Hobby Lobby Case | Douglas Aronin | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/american-jews-and-religious-freedom/

Kol Tuv,
RRW