The U.S. Supreme Court is an overlooked part of federal government.
Shrouded in tradition and still somewhat mysterious, the court yields as much or more influence on America than the other two branches of government.
The court is supposed to be our best and brightest and as impartial as possible.
Unfortunately, the Roberts Court, like the Rehnquist Court before it, rule out of one side of its mouth while it talks out of its other.
Yes, hypocrisy is nothing new in the Supreme Court or its rulings: especially when the majority is conservative.
From gutting voting rights last year to declaring corporations “people” in the Citizens United case, to speaking of state’s rights then stepping in and ruling in Bush v. Gore, the High Court has not covered itself in glory.
They are not alone in this lately though.
Hobby Lobby is a crafts store. My wife is a customer. It is actually a cool place to find many items that make a house a home. One thing is for sure though: Hobby Lobby does not have their house in order.
Hobby Lobby is currently arguing their case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts chain argues, according to Slate magazine, “its religious opposition to some forms of contraception goes so deep that it represents a substantial burden for the company to allow its employees to use their own health care plans to purchase those forms of contraception.”
The company’s opposition on moral grounds is supposedly about religion. What it is really about is the fact that Hobby lobby does not want to pay for its employees to receive the healthcare the federal government mandates they must receive by law.
Is providing healthcare for employees but then trying to avoid giving them the healthcare the law demands hypocrisy?
Yes it is.
The real scandal was reported in Mother Jones magazine last week.
It turns out that Hobby Lobby invests its worker’s retirement funds in companies that make contraceptive devices and abortion pills.
According to the article, the company has $73 million in these funds.
This is not Mom and Pop not knowing where their 401k money is going; corporations have an army of investment professionals keeping track of this kind of policy.
This is brazen hypocrisy, not a mistake.
This is unconscionable. This is repugnant. This is classic conservative religiosity at work.
Remember Saint Ronnie, our 40th President? Ronald Reagan pandered to fundamentalist Christians like no one ever before.
School prayer, anti-abortion, religious displays in government buildings were all Reagan goals. Of course, Reagan was our only divorced President, a biblical no-no.
His wife Nancy was and is a life-long adherent to astrology.
Astrology falls under the umbrella of divination, another sin in the Good Book. This hypocrisy never seemed to bother the Republicans though.
My hunch is that Hobby Lobby’s blatant hypocrisy will not bother the five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court either.
Two things today’s Republican Party are never in short supply of are hypocrisy and religious reasons to justify it.
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