Archive | Hobby Lobby

Here are my Hobby Lobby posts in a single Word document, in case some of you might find them helpful.

I thought I’d pass this along, since many of our readers are interested in the case. Naturally, I’m also open to posting something from one of the lawyers or academics on the opposite side of the issue. First, I want to thank Prof. Volokh for his fine series of posts on the cases involving the […]

Whew. That was a lot of writing on Hobby Lobby last week, and a lot of reading. I hope it was helpful, interesting, or both. Now, fortunately, I’m finishing up, but I wanted to close with one broader thought, going beyond the purely legal RFRA question. (I should also note that this thought is even […]

[Please note the UPDATE below.] (For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Today, I’m blogging about what I think should be the heart of the Hobby Lobby case: whether denying Hobby Lobby an exemption from the requirement of providing potentially implantation-preventing contraceptives is the “least restrictive means” of serving a particular “compelling […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Today, I’m blogging about what I think should be the heart of the Hobby Lobby case: whether denying Hobby Lobby an exemption from the requirement of providing potentially implantation-preventing contraceptives is the “least restrictive means” of serving a particular “compelling governmental interest.” This post focuses […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) We can now get to what I think should be the heart of the case: whether denying Hobby Lobby an exemption from the requirement of providing potentially implantation-preventing contraceptives is the “least restrictive means” of serving a particular “compelling governmental interest.” I don’t know what […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) On then to another general argument — the argument that, regardless of the specific interests the government asserts in support of the employer mandate, those interests don’t count because the law has secular exceptions. One version of the argument is that such exceptions make the […]

I’ve argued below that, if someone believes that it’s religiously wrong for him to be complicit in certain behavior, requiring him to act in such a way is a “substantial burden” on his religious practice under RFRA. This is true even if you and I might define complicity differently, and might view the particular actions […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) So far, I’ve argued that Hobby Lobby likely has a good case as to the claim that the employer mandate substantially burdens religious exercise, because the mandate requires Hobby Lobby to do something — fund potentially implantation-preventing contraceptives — that Hobby Lobby’s owners believe is […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) In the preceding post, I’ve argued that Hobby Lobby might well prevail on the claim that the employer mandate substantially burdens its owners’ religious practice. This means that Hobby Lobby would be presumptively entitled to an exemption under RFRA, though that presumption could be rebutted […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) * * * 1. Some people have argued that RFRA shouldn’t apply in Hobby Lobby because the employer mandate doesn’t require employers to actually do anything they see as sinful. The employers aren’t required to use the implantation-preventing contraceptives that they see as immoral. They […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Much of the recent debate about Hobby Lobby and similar cases has focused on whether RFRA allows exemptions from burdens imposed on corporations. As before, let me approach this question by considering some hypotheticals that don’t invoke the hot political passions generated by the employer […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) Let us turn now more closely to the issues raised by Hobby Lobby, but take them one at a time. The first issue is: Should religious exemption rights even be seen as applicable to commercial activity, or should they be limited to objectors’ noncommercial activities […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) The RFRA religious exemption regime may seem less exemption-friendly than the Sherbert/Yoder-era constitutional exemption regime, precisely because it is only statutory. If Congress (or, for a state RFRA, a state legislature) dislikes an exemption that courts have recognized, it can pass a new statute rejecting […]

(For an introduction to this series of posts, see here.) The previous post in this series has explained what RFRA is, and what general rules it sets forth. For nearly all the remaining posts, I’ll take RFRA as given, and not deal with the broader question of whether having such a statute is a good […]