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Federal judge bars enforcement of contraception mandate on Colorado Company

At the American Spectator, David Catron writes (emphasis added):

If the supporters of Obamacare thought its legal troubles were over after the recent Supreme Court ruling, they learned otherwise last week. On Friday, Senior Judge John Kane of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued an order forbidding the government from taking action against a company called Hercules Industries for refusing to provide contraceptive coverage to its employees. The injunction is specific to Hercules and only applies while its lawsuit, Newland v. Sebelius, is litigated. Still, it is significant because it is the first such order against the contraception mandate and it protects a family-run enterprise whose owners merely seek to operate their company in a way that reflects their religious beliefs. …

The plaintiffs in Newland v. Sebelius argue, as do the Catholic institutions, that this “anti-conscience mandate” violates their First Amendment right to religious freedom. Incredibly, the DOJ’s lawyers argue that the Newlands have no claim to this fundamental right because they operate a for-profit business: “Plaintiffs’ free exercise claim fails at the outset because… for-profit, secular employers generally, and Hercules Industries in particular, do not engage in any exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment.” In other words, this basic constitutional protection is lost to William Newland, Paul Newland, James Newland and Christine Ketterhagen because they run a business founded by their family in 1962.

Read more: The American Spectator : Another Obamacare Mandate Runs Afoul of the Courts.

See here for Colorado locations of Hercules industries.

Here’s the Denver Post‘s August 12 article about the lawsuit.

 

(via FIRM)