The last time an ObamaCare mandate found its way into the US Supreme Court — the individual mandate — it was found constitutional. Of course, that was only because the four liberal justices sided with Chief Justice John Roberts in an opinion they clearly did not agree with but voted for to salvage ObamaCare.
Let’s hope they do better this time. Today the court hears arguments on the Affordable Care Act’s mandate requiring employers to underwrite birth-control coverage, including sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even when doing so forces employers to violate their consciences. Like so much else in ObamaCare, it is yet another overreach born of a preference for force.
There are actually two cases today. One involves Hobby Lobby, a chain of crafts store run along Christian principles by the Green family. The other is Conestoga Wood specialties, a family-run Mennonite woodworking enterprise. Neither objects to birth control per se, but both object to underwriting drugs they believe are abortifacients. Both face fines in the millions if they don’t knuckle under.
In a brief filed this year, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty summed up the Obama administration’s action this way: “When the government threatens to ruin a family’s business unless they renounce their faith, the pressure placed on them is unmistakable. In other words, ‘Your business or your religion’ is just as effective a threat as ‘Your money or your life.’ ”
If you like your Constitution — especially the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise — this case is likely to tell you if you can keep it.