Yesterday, I was talking with Mark Rienzi of the Becket Fund and Catholic University about the procedural win in a circuit court for Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey: There cases can move forward and the court insisted on a little accountability for the Department of Health and Human Services which has acted as if it has an accommodation for the religious freedom of some with conscience objections to its abortion-drug, contraception, sterilization mandate while never actually presenting any change in the status of the regulation. In our conversation, though, we did not forget he who is often completely forgotten in this discussion (when it’s even discussed): The business owner who has a conscience objection to the policy.
And today, the Tenth Circuit rejected a request for help from Hobby Lobby, a chain owned by an evangelical family.
Supreme alternatives come next …