2014-07-02

Sea Change In America

It looks like the US religious right has given up on trying to use the government to force their religious views on other people, and instead is trying the argument that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot prevent them from forcing their religious views on other people.  And the Hobby Lobby decision sort of validates that.

(I don't have anything more for that thought right now, I thought it interesting and it is just too long to coherently fit in a tweet.)

Update: ok maybe I do have more.  I'm not sure I totally disagree with the gist of this decision.  The Supreme Court isn't saying that you can't have contraceptive, all they are saying is that employers are not obligated to pay for it.  Which is fair.  Frankly if contraceptive is something worth making employers pay for, it should be something worth making the government pay for so that it is more generally available.

Update the 2nd: OK, I see now -- my first principles were wrong. Obamacare did mandate that contraception was a mandatory part of health care. So in that case, I disagree with the court ruling. Doesn't invalidate my observation off the top, though. See what happens when people debate policy from headlines and twitter postings?