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Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Hobby Lobby Ruling Falls Short

As far as it went, the Supreme Court generally got it right in the Hobby Lobby-Obamacare-contraception case. Unfortunately it didn’t go nearly far enough.
The court ruled that “closely held corporations” whose owners have religious convictions against contraceptives cannot be forced to pay for employee coverage for those products.
I wish the court could have said this instead: (1) No one has a natural right to force other people to pay for her (or his) contraception or anything else (with or without the government’s help), and by logical extension, (2) everyone has a right to refuse to pay if asked.
For people about to celebrate the Fourth of July, these principles ought to be, well, self-evident.
Here's the rest.

6 comments:

Grung_e_Gene said...

Of course, the salient and overlooked point is why we still have healthcare coverage linked to employment.

Of course, with America's history of enslaving workers Bosses have always determined what is best for their chattel.

Now, we have Religious reasons why a company which provides a benefit to a human being is able to tell that human what they can and can't do...

Jim Wetzel said...

"Now, we have Religious reasons why a company which provides a benefit to a human being is able to tell that human what they can and can't do..."

I must have missed something. Is Hobby Lobby telling its employees what they may and may not do? Or, is failing to provide something the same thing as forbidding access to it?

You know, I'd really like a nice steak dinner tonight. Please reimburse me for it. If you won't, how can you live with yourself, having denied me access to a nice steak dinner?

Grung_e_Gene said...

Yes, Jim you did miss something. You see the healthcare coverage is part of the benefit package provided to the employee in their contract.

It is, in fact, akin to telling their employees they can't use part of their benefits.

And when does it stop?

Jim Wetzel said...

Which "contract" is this? And what part of their benefits can't they use?

"Akin" to telling the employees that they can't use part of their benefits? What exactly are they being told (as opposed to "what's similar to what they're being told)?

Grung_e_Gene said...

Jim,

Sadly it appears you are being purposefully obtuse.

Your snark comment of "I'd like a steak dinner tonight. Please reimburse me for it." shows how backwards the Libertarian Guard Dogs of the Rich and Powerful are making this argument.

What is actually happening is Corporations and CEOs are now free to tell employees that there are things they can not get.

So it actually is as if Hobby Lobby told you, you can not buy a steak dinner because they consider it morally objectionable.

Anonymous said...

Is contraception prohibitively expensive? I don't think it is. If you want to be mad at anyone be mad at the government for mandating that the pill be available by prescription only. Even if there are problems which could be solved by state intervention it is always a mephistophelean bargain. There are bad corporations, sure, but commerce is by its very nature a good thing. Formal political authority is always and everywhere evil. Call us running dogs for the rich all you like, but if you support the state on principal you effectively aid and abet police brutality, murder by cop, the surveillance state, and every other atrocity under the sun committed by the parasites who make up the political class.