Monday, June 30, 2014

SUPREME COURT DEBACLE. CALL TO ACTION, OR GO QUIETLY INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT OF RELIGIOUS INSANITY


Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in a 5 to 4 split decision.  If you haven't been keeping abreast of this issue, the Christian fanatics who own Hobby Lobby insist they cannot be forced to provide health insurance  to their employees that covers contraception, because "their CORPORATION" is entitled to religious freedom, and they oppose certain forms of contraception.  Never mind that the employees may not agree with their corporation's, or the owners, religious view.   Here's the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/us/hobby-lobby-case-supreme-court-contraception.html?_r=0



This horrendous ruling  gives corporations the "religious freedom" to potentially claim their right to circumvent any number of civil rights... from equal opportunity for women and minorities, to equal pay, to inquiring at point of hire as to a person's religious beliefs/ affilliations and denying them employment for a wrong answer.  One can only wonder how far this can go.

I consider this, as does Justice Ginsburg, to be a "Pandora's box" that will have profound impact on our rights as freethinking citizens, and the role of corporations in our society.

If this concerns you as much as it does me, you can do something that will take all of nine (9) minutes of your life.  The following is a letter I sent to both of my senators and my congressperson. The info is drawn from a Freedom From Religion Foundation news release that just came out.

You may write your own letter, or copy my letter in part or in full, and send it to your senators and congress person .  The link at the bottom will take you to where you can find your representative's email address in seconds.  I URGE YOU TO ACT NOW.


Dear Senator ________,
I am disgusted with the Supreme Court's ruling on Hobby lobby contraception exclusion.

As I understand it, their decision is based not on the Constitution, but on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a statute. This statute was adopted by Congress and must be repealed by Congress.

The main justification for this decision is the Supreme Court's holding that RFRA protects Hobby Lobby from the generally applicable rules of the Affordable Care Act.

I urgently request that you move to have the RFRA repealed, and that you do everything you can to prevent corporations from using this ruling to circumvent peoples rights and freedoms.
I look forward to your response.

Yours truly,


HERE'S THE LINK TO YOUR SENATOR'S EMAIL ADDRESS:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


Thanks in advance for your activism.

3 comments:

paul said...

Happy to report that both of our senators (who both happen to be women!) are outspokenly against the SCOTUS ruling, and are promising to take action on behalf of sanity.

Clare said...

Bart, It would be helpful if you made the Senator contact info a clickable link. Also, another link for Representatives would make things easier for folks. I know camels are hardworking and persistent, but humans are lazy and so you have to make it E-Z for us.

Dromedary Hump said...

Thanks, Paul.

Clare, sometimes this blog provider doesn't make the links I post active, requiring my readers to copy and paste the link into their address bar. I have no way to fix that.

The one I provided is for Senators, here's the US House listing:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/