Monday, May 13, 2013

Christians Defeating ObamaCare, DOJ Surrenders

Religious Liberty has been scoring victories against President Obama's War on Christianity (via birth control and abortifacients): The White House quit fighting Tyndale (Christian) publishing in court; Judge ruled for Christian-owned Seneca Lumber Company; Geneva (Christian) College given day in court.

UPDATE 11/2/13:  Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Catholics vs. ObamaCare

Take note that the Morning-After Abortifacient is Becoming the 'Contraceptive' Choice

For background, read Supreme Court Allows Christians to Sue ObamaCare and also read Bishops Say Catholic Church Will Defy ObamaCare as well as Christians Oppose ObamaCare, Support Hobby Lobby

And read the latest news of the ObamaCare War against Christians.

-- From "The Supreme Court is About to Get Another Chance to Gut Obamacare" by Simon Lazarus, Senior Counsel to the Constitutional Accountability Center (posted at New Republic) 5/13/13

[Critics of the Affordable Care Act (ACA - ObamaCare) argue that] due to a drafting glitch in the ACA, only state-run exchanges, not federal ones, can provide tax credits and subsidies to enable lower-income individuals to afford ACA-mandated health insurance. . . . The Obama administration has estimated that 80 percent of the millions of individuals expected to purchase insurance through exchanges will require some tax subsidies. Without those subsidies, in states with Federally facilitated exchanges, the individual mandate, constitutional though the Court has declared it, simply won’t work.

. . . All the Obama administration’s arguments, however well-founded, could be shoved aside, if the case reaches the Supreme Court, and the Court’s conservative bloc deploys a “methodology,” long touted by Justice Antonin Scalia, for interpreting statutes.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Bible publisher wins court battle over contraceptive mandate" by Bob Smietana, The Tennessean 5/7/13

Tyndale House Publishers, based in Carol Stream, Ill., sued the federal government over the mandate last October because it objects to providing emergency contraception, which it claims causes abortions.

Tyndale was granted a preliminary injunction by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2013. The government appealed that lower court ruling.

On Friday, [President Obama's] Department of Health and Human Services dropped its appeal.

“The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn’t religious enough to qualify as a religious employer,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal council for Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF], a Christian legal group that represents Tyndale.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Seneca Lumber Company Wins Exemption From Obamacare Contraception Mandate" by Jillian Berman, The Huffington Post 4/23/13

Wayne Hepler [of Pennsylvania], whose family owns Seneca, argued in the suit that the they shouldn’t be required to cover contraception because it violates their deeply held Catholic beliefs, and therefore their government-protected religious freedom. The suit notes that “Hepler and his thirteen children are committed to the Catholic church’s teachings on human life and sexuality.”

"This is a family that provides generous benefits in their business and they want to be free to live according to their faith, but this Obamacare mandate is coercing them to violate their conscience," said Matt Bowman, the senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the plaintiffs in the case.

The Heplers and their companies "are being forced to choose between providing health insurance that is inconsistent with their beliefs or providing no insurance at all, a choice that puts them at a competitive disadvantage and forces their employees to purchase health insurance, which includes coverage for the objected to services, on their own,” the suit states.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Judge revives western Pa. Christian college's lawsuit targeting birth control rules" by Joe Mandak, Associated Press 5/9/13

In filing the lawsuit last year, Geneva [College] officials argued that requiring the school to offer birth control coverage that includes the morning-after pill is "directly at odds" with its religious values, including the Bible's Sixth Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Murder."

. . . Geneva's lawsuit also targets ella — also known as the week-after pill. Finally, [ADF's Gregory] Baylor says even if Plan B winds up being permanently available over the counter, doctors can sometimes still write prescriptions for such drugs, meaning insurance would cover them.

Geneva wants the judge to rule that the regulations violate federal law and the First Amendment rights of the college and similar faith-based or church-related groups. It also seeks an order exempting the school from complying with the birth control rule in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Obamacare challenge moving back toward Supremes" posted at World Net Daily 4/25/13

While the Supreme Court last year ruled on Obamacare, it left several of the questions about the program unanswered. Liberty University said it had a right to have those litigated, and the Supreme Court agreed, resulting in the pending case [of May 26 before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals].

. . . the Liberty Counsel challenge to Obamacare is described as the most comprehensive case pending because it challenges the employer mandate that companies must provide abortifacients or pay a penalty, the abortion mandate for religious employers, the abortion mandate for individuals and the entire law because tax bills must originate in the House.

“Obamacare represents a frontal attack to religious freedom. Obamacare is a train about to collide with the fundamental right to free exercise of religion,” said [Liberty Counsel's Mathew] Staver. “Not only does Obamacare violate the rights of religious employers because of its abortion mandate, it violates the rights of individuals who oppose abortion and the rights of all employers, religious or not.”

Staver said the university will clearly state that all abortions – whether chemically induced by drugs shortly after conception or performed in an abortion clinic – are equally reprehensible to many people of faith.

Staver noted that the case probably will end up back at the Supreme Court, with a final verdict probably coming in the first half of 2014.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

In addition, read President Obama Redefines 1st Amendment Freedom of Religion and yet President Obama Denies Leading War Against Christianity, and also read Religious Liberty & Anti-Christian Totalitarianism