How Hobby Lobby Ruling Could Impact Catholic Nonprofits
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A US Supreme Court decision says that closely held, for-profit companies, like the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, can opt out of the new health law requirement that they help pay for contraceptives for women, based on religious objections (see related story).
The nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization says the ruling may provide the tipping point for, in its words, "rethinking the Affordable Care Act."
Catholic League President Bill Donohue says the ruling means the Obama administration cannot, in his words, "run roughshod over the religious liberty rights of Americans."
"If the Obama administration has exempted over 100-million Americans already, then people of faith wonder why do we have to fight for our rights to get an exemption as well?" Donohue said.
While the Hobby Lobby decision was a 5-4 ruling, Donohue believes another religious freedom battle -- about a year behind on the high court's docket -- involving Catholic nonprofits will be more decisive.
An order of Catholic nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, is heading up a group of nonprofit organizations challenging the contraception mandate, just like Hobby Lobby did with other for-profit businesses.
"I'm going to predict a 9-0 victory," Donohue says.
