Amicus Briefs Supporting Religious Freedom Outnumber Government by almost 3-1
Editor’s note. The following was distributed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. At issue is the controversial HHS mandate that compels employers, including religious groups, to provide health coverage for drugs and procedures to which they have moral or religious objections.
Washington, D.C. When the clock struck midnight, 81 briefs flooded in the U.S. Supreme Court, 56 supporting Hobby Lobby and outnumbering the Government’s position almost 3-1. In one of the largest amicus brief filings in Supreme Court history, a diverse coalition of bipartisan legislators, religious leaders, legal scholars and States stood united in defending David and Barbara Green and their family business Hobby Lobby from being forced to violate their deeply held religious beliefs or pay severe fines.
“The broad support shows that Americans of many faiths and backgrounds want to see religious freedom protected,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Religious freedom is important to Democrats and Republicans, to Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others. Religious freedom is at stake here, and we are happy to see Americans of many faiths and backgrounds unite to support the Green family.”
For all 81 amicus briefs, quotes, excerpts, and additional recourses visit the Becket Fund’s website. The Becket Fund represents Hobby Lobby and David and Barbara Green, owners of the family business, and is the leading resource on all HHS Affordable Care Act mandate cases.
Supporting briefs for Hobby Lobby included:
- Members of Congress from both parties
- Twenty states
- More than 150 leading scholars and theologians
- International law scholars from 16 countries.
- Pastor Rick Warren & Eric Metaxas and over thirty Protestant theologians
- Women’s policy groups
- Medical groups
- Diverse religious groups, businesses, and scholars:
- Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye
- International Society for Krishna Consciousness
- Crescent Foods, a halal food company
- Feldheim Publishers, a leading Torah publisher
- Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Anglican Church in North America
President Hamza Yusuf Hanson of Zaytuna College