CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The Supreme Court\u2019s refusal to hear a conscience rights case raised by pro-life pharmacy owners came with a stark warning from the three dissenting justices who voiced concerns about the future of religious liberty in the U.S.<\/p>\n\u201cThis case is an ominous sign,\u201d said Justice Samuel Alito. \u201cIf this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Alito wrote a dissent \u2013 joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts \u2013 after the Supreme Court denied an appeal to hear a conscience rights case on June 28. The case challenged Washington state rules that required pharmacies to dispense abortion-causing drugs and prevented those who object to abortion from referring customers elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Justice Alito said the rules could make a pharmacist unemployable if he or she has religious objections to dispensing certain prescriptions. Alito said there are \u201cstrong reasons\u201d to doubt the regulations were adopted for a legitimate purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201c(T)here is much evidence that the impetus for the adoption of the regulations was hostility to pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of step with prevailing opinion in the State,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2007, the Washington Pharmacy Commission began to require pharmacies to dispense the abortion-inducing drugs Plan B and ella. The commission made conscience-based referrals illegal.<\/p>\n
The new rule had an impact on the owners of Ralph\u2019s Thriftway, a grocery store and pharmacy in Olympia, Washington run by Greg Stormans and his family, who are Christians opposed to abortion.<\/p>\n
They filed a lawsuit against the state to halt enforcement of the regulations. They argued that the regulations were a substantial violation of their right to freely exercise their religion.<\/p>\n
In July 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed a district court\u2019s decision to suspend the regulations. The 9th Circuit said that the rules are neutral and \u201crationally further the State\u2019s interest in patient safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stormans and two other plaintiffs, pharmacists Margo Thelen and Rhonda Mesler, appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we are asking is to be able to live consistently with the beliefs that we hold, as Americans have always been able to do, and to be able to refer patients for religious reasons, as the medical and pharmaceutical associations overwhelmingly recommend,\u201d Stormans said.<\/p>\n
Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said it violated federal law to single out people of faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll Americans should be free to peacefully live and work consistent with their faith without fear of unjust punishment, and no one should be forced to participate in the taking of human life,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would take this opportunity to reaffirm these long-held principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rules make Washington the only state that does not allow conscience-based referrals. These referrals have the support of leading pharmacist associations.<\/p>\n
The Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson had asked the Supreme Court to refuse the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients should know that when they need medication, they won\u2019t be refused based on the personal views of a particular pharmacy owner,\u201d Ferguson said June 28. \u201cThe appeals court ruling upheld today protects that principle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Alito\u2019s dissent said that allowing conscience referrals serves both the rights of conscience and practical ends, given that pharmacies can only stock a small fraction of the more than 6,000 drugs approved by the FDA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dilemma this creates for the Stormans family and others like them is plain: Violate your sincerely held religious beliefs or get out of the pharmacy business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Justice Alito noted the district court\u2019s finding that the regulations\u2019 predominant purpose was to \u201cstamp out\u201d the right to refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives for religious reasons. He said the plaintiffs raised enough suspicions that the challenged rules \u201creflect antipathy toward religious beliefs that do not accord with the views of those holding the levers of government power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alito said the case resembled a previous Supreme Court decision that protected practitioners of Santeria from a law intended to bar animal sacrifice. He said there is \u201csimilar evidence of discriminatory intent\u201d in the Washington rules.<\/p>\n
He agreed with the plaintiffs that the Washington regulations appeared to have been \u201cgerrymandered\u201d to restrict religious practice and moral objections, while also granting \u201cbroad\u201d secular exceptions like allowing pharmacies to decline service for financial reasons.<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Jun 29, 2016 \/ 12:11 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear a conscience rights case raised by pro-life pharmacy owners came with a stark warning from the three dissenting justices who voiced concerns about the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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