Someone Was Paying Attention (Hint: It Wasn't The NSA)

As we all know, there are two cases coming before the Supreme Court (Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp v. Sebelius) that argue the novel (if not insane) concept that corporations/businesses have religious liberties.  Both Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood ground their arguments in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA aka Obamacare) places a non-acceptable burden on the religious liberties of these two corporations.

A coalition of organizations* were paying attention though and have filed an amicus brief asking the Court to rule whether or not the RFRA is even constitutional.  In my view, this is a very welcome game changer.  Let us hope the Supreme Court takes the brief seriously and considers the constitutionality of the RFRA.

I want to thank Lyle Denniston over at the SCOTUSBlog for writing up an easy to read article regarding this amicus brief.

*The coalition that filed the amicus brief is made up of the following organizations:

1.  Freedom From Religion Foundation

2.  BishopAccountability.org

3.  Children's Healthcare Is A Legal Duty, Inc (CHILD, Inc)

4.  Child Protection Project

5.  Foundation To Abolish Child Sex Abuse

6.  Survivors For Justice

7.  Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priests