Let’s Give Thanks for Hobby Lobby by Michelle Malkin

Religious liberty is front and center on the nation’s Thanksgiving table. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.The family-owned craft-store company is intrepidly challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare’s abortion-coverage mandate. Hobby Lobby’s faithful owners deserve our thanks and praise as they defend freedom of conscience for all Americans.

The privately held retail chain’s story is the quintessential American dream. Founder David Green started out making mini picture frames in his Oklahoma garage in 1970. He recruited his two sons, Mart and Steve, to pitch in at an early age. The family’s first establishment took up a tiny 300 square feet of retail space. Hobby Lobby now runs nearly 600 stores across the country, employs 13,000 people, and topped $2 billion in sales in 2009.

The Greens’ Christian faith is at the heart of how they do business. They are dedicated to integrity and service for their customers and their employees. The debt-free company commits to “honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles,” as well as “serving our employees and their families by establishing a work environment and company policies that build character, strengthen individuals and nurture families.”

Via: NRO

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Poll: 59% Oppose Obamacare Insurance Mandate for Abortion, Sterilization

(CNSNews.com) – A new poll commissioned by the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom shows that three out of five or 59 percent of likely voters oppose requiring insurance plans to cover FDA approved contraceptives, including those drugs that can destroy a human embryo and sterilization.

FRC President Tony Perkins issued the following statement regarding the survey and the Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to accept the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases and decide the fate of Obamacare's HHS mandate.

"Americans should not be forced to violate their religious beliefs to purchase health insurance, hold a job, or operate a business in their country,” Perkin said. “Freedom of religion, the American people believe, extends to the freedom to practice your religion in your healthcare plan, as outlined by the First Amendment of the Constitution and illustrated in these poll results.

"The American people are turning their backs not only on this oppressive health care law but also on the law's mandate that for the first time in American history requires individuals to violate their moral beliefs and require them to pay for items and services they oppose in their health care plans,” Perkins aid.

Via: CNS News

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Anti-Christian Valerie Jarrett Targets Hobby Lobby As ‘Corporate Entity’ Trying To ‘Seize A Controlling Interest’ Over Women

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett called out Hobby Lobby and insisted the Obamacare mandate case that will go before the Supreme Court is about whether big corporations can restrict women from having access to birth control.

The case is actually a religious freedom complaint against the administration for the Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance to provide free coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilization. If the plaintiffs win, it would not allow them to restrict employees from buying these products on their own, only that the employees would not get them for free.“No corporate entity should be in position to limit women’s legal access to care, or to seize a controlling interest over the health care choices of women,” Jarrett wrote on the White House blog. “To take that type of power away from individuals, and to let the personal beliefs of a woman’s boss dictate her health care choices would constitute a major step backward for women’s health and self-determination.”

The high court will hear the case from two family-owned companies, the Oklahoma-based chain Hobby Lobby and the Pennsylvania-based Conestoga Wood Specialties Store Corp., both of which argue that paying for employee-based coverage of these drug violates their religious freedom.

“Today, there are people trying to take this right away from women, by letting private, for-profit corporations and employers make medical decisions for their employees, based on their personal beliefs,” said Jarrett, whose blog was cross-posted on the Huffington Post.

Via: The Blaze

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Store Says NO To HHS Mandate

In November a federal judge ruled Christian-owned Hobby Lobby must pay for abortifacient drugs and birth control for their employees.

This week Hobby Lobby announced it will defy the Obama HHS mandate and risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.
Life News reported:

Following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denying Hobby Lobby’s request for an exemption from the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, the Christian retail company said it will defy the mandate.

As LifeNews reported, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to act favorably on an emergency appeal Hobby Lobby stores filed to stop enforcement of the HHS mandate against it.

After a federal court denied a request to temporarily stop enforcement of the abortion pill mandate against the Christian-operated business Hobby Lobby, it took its HHS mandate lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor denied its request to block the mandate and the millions of dollars in fines it will be subjected to starting January 1 for not complying…

…Now, an attorney for Hobby Lobby says it will defy the mandate and potentially risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.

Kyle Duncan, an attorney for the pro-life legal group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement that hobby Lobby doesn’t plan to offer its employees insurance that would cover the drug while its lawsuit is pending.

“The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees,” Duncan said. “To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”

Via: Gateway Pundit

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