Eric Teetsel, who directs the Manhattan Declaration, writes at The Federalist about the Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby:
In a momentous decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that closely-held corporations cannot be forced to include coverage for contraceptives in their employer-sponsored health plans. Applying the rationale of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Court held that the government failed to use the least-restrictive-means in a Health and Human Services regulation mandating contraceptive coverage, infringing the rights of faith-based businesses Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood.
The case is an encouraging early milestone as people of faith seek to preserve religious liberties incompatible with expanding sexual mores. The Hobby Lobby decision affirms that RFRA protections apply to closely held corporations (that is, corporations 50 percent owned by 5 or fewer persons) so faith-based business owners must not leave their most deeply-held religious convictions at the threshold when opening up shop. The Court might have gone further in applying this rationale, but limited the scope of its decision to the facts of the case before it.
