From Special Report with Bret Baier | Wednesday, May 23, 2012
On a lawsuit brought by 43 Catholic institutions against the requirement in the administration’s health-care overhaul that employers cover contraception in workers’ insurance plans:
Elections come and go, but the Constitution endures. This is a hugely important constitutional issue. The substance of this is extremely important.
Of all the liberties in our constitution, the first in the First Amendment is [freedom of] religion. And the way, if you’re a secularist and you believe in the leviathan state… to constrict it is by restricting the definition of religion. And that’s what the suit is all about.
Under the HHS regulation, religion is practiced only in a church on Sundays, essentially: Once you walk out the church door, you are not engaged in religion, even if you’re running a Catholic hospital or a Catholic charity — and that is a complete undermining of the idea of religion and religious vocation.
And that’s why this suit is being brought. Because if you are outside the protection of the First Amendment in a Catholic hospital or a Catholic charity, then the state can dictate that you do anything it wants — even if it’s a violation of your deepest doctrinal beliefs.