Case Study: Burwell V. Hobby Lobby

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was a landmark court cases that lasted from November 26, 2013 to June 30, 2014. Although the court case was being appealed since Semptember 2012. The case came down to a very slim margin; the jury voted in Hobby Lobby's favor with a 5-4 vote. The court case was mainly about religious freedoms in for-profit businesses.
Hobby Lobby is a business that was founded by the Green Family that started with a
$600 loan used to make picture frames in there house. That has expanded to over 700 stores across the US and over 32,000 employees. The Green Family based the business on their
Christian beliefs, Dave Green said that "We believe that it is by God's grace and provision that
Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in …show more content…
The Birth Control Mandate makes corporations provide the option for birth control for employees, which requires the business to offer 20 different types of contraceptives and Hobby
Lobby objects to offering 4 types: Mirena IUD, Paragard IUD, Plan-B, and Ella. Hobby Lobby believes them to be potential life-terminating drugs that are known as abortifacients, drugs that cause abortions, even though the Federal Drugs Administration has found those four drugs to not be abortifacients. The main question is Hobby Lobby, a for-profit family owned business, breaking the Birth Control Mandate by not offering their employees birth control. Non-profit organizations are exempt from the contraceptive mandate because it can conflict with their religious beliefs, such as churches. Hobby Lobby sued because they believe that a life begins when it is concepted and anything that influences the fertilized egg after conception is against their religion so they sued under the Free Exercise clause and the Religious Freedom …show more content…
The Department of Health and Human Service had declared that non- profit organizations were defined as a "person" under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
(RFRA) and that for-profit corporations cannot be classified as a "person", therefore could not sue. The RFRA guartees non-profit organization the protection granted by the RFRA indesputitively, but the question in the Hobby Lobby case is, does for-profit corporations have the rights guaranteed by the RFRA to religious exercise?
On the other hand Hobby Lobby was a family owned business that was built on there strict Christian religious belief. The owners believe that anything that prevents the fertilized egg from growing is conflicting with their religion beliefs. If they follow what the Mandate states then they believe that they will be contributing to the "killing" of the child and if they do not follow the Mandate they can be fined up to $1.3 million dollars per day or $475 million per year.
Justice Alito's opinion in the case is favoring the Green Family by saying "Under RFRA, a
Government action that imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise must serve a compelling government interest, and we assume that the HHS regulations satisfy

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Burwell V. Hobby Lobby Case Study

Burwell V. Hobby Lobby Case Study