{"id":16049,"date":"2013-06-02T16:41:01","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T21:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=16049"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:19:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:19:21","slug":"do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html","title":{"rendered":"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Um, put your pencil away, Mr. President.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The short answer is, \u201cNo.\u201d The long answer is \u201cshow me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same (particularly in the Bill of Rights).\u201d<\/p>\n

What about when it comes to the HHS Mandate, which requires nonreligious entities provide coverage for artificial contraceptions, abortion services, etc.?<\/p>\n

Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, has some thoughts around this issue which he shares in a post we wrote recently that bears the title, Obama, God, and the Profits<\/em> (heh!). Here\u2019s a taste,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A surprising and public rift opened up last week between President Obama and his lawyers over whether profit-making businesses can pursue goals other than making money, including adhering to religious requirements.<\/p>\n

In courtrooms across the country\u2014including one yesterday in Philadelphia\u2014Department of Justice lawyers told judges that profit-making businesses with religious objections to the HHS contraceptive mandate cannot exercise religion.\u00a0 Profit-making business apparently can pursue just one goal:\u00a0 making money.\u00a0 Business owners must check their religious values at the door.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the country, however, President Obama offered the opposite message to a group of men graduating from Morehouse College.\u00a0 He urged them to forge careers in business, but to avoid focusing solely on profits.\u00a0 Instead, they should consider \u201cwhat\u00a0broader purpose<\/a>\u00a0your business might serve\u201d by pursuing values other than profits, like \u201ctransforming a neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0 The President\u2019s comments echoed his remarks last year at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he proclaimed that leaving our \u201cvalues at the door<\/a>\u201d would \u201cabandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The President is right and his lawyers are wrong.<\/p>\n

Businesses act on principles beyond the pursuit of profit every day.\u00a0 Vegan markets refuse to sell animal products because they are ethically opposed to hurting animals. Some employers have long provided benefits to same-sex partners based on the moral view that doing so is right and just.\u00a0 Some investment funds refuse to invest in fossil-fuel companies because they view them as destructive.\u00a0 Businesses following moral, ethical, philosophical, and environmental principles are all around us.<\/p>\n

Similarly, some businesses operate according to religious principles.\u00a0 The Hahn family, for example, are Mennonite Christians who run Conestoga Wood, a cabinet-making company in East Earl, PA.\u00a0 They have long followed the President\u2019s admonition to consider the \u201cbroader purpose\u201d their business might serve, and to avoid leaving their \u201cvalues at the door.\u201d\u00a0 Yet yesterday they heard government lawyers tell judges that because their company earns money, the Hahns cannot follow their religion while they work.\u00a0 The government seeks to impose crushing fines on the Hahns ($95,000 dollars every\u00a0day<\/em>) unless the Hahns will start violating their religion and paying for drugs that they believe cause abortions.<\/p>\n

The lawyers have it all wrong.\u00a0 Earning money doesn\u2019t suddenly give the government the right to extinguish your constitutional rights.\u00a0 The New York Times Company is a profit-making corporation, but it obviously has free speech rights.\u00a0 Many doctors provide abortions for profit, but of course the government could not stop them just because they make money.\u00a0 We don\u2019t trade in our constitutional rights when we earn a living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sarah Torre, by way of the Heritage Foundation via Lifenews, reports on the progress of other firms who have filed suit against the Department of Health & Human Services.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Over the next few weeks, two more family businesses will be in federal courts seeking relief from the mandate. Already, 19 of 26 plaintiffs who have had rulings touching on the merits of their cases have been awarded stays against the coercive rule. In total, more than 190 plaintiffs are involved in over 50 cases.<\/p>\n

But even if the mandate is rescinded or thrown out by a court, the government will retain the authority through other parts of ObamaCare to coerce insurance companies and employers and trample on individuals\u2019 constitutional freedoms by imposing additional objectionable mandates.<\/p>\n

Employees and individuals should be able to choose health care that best fits the needs of their families and respects their freedom. Employers should be able to build and grow job-creating businesses in accordance with their values without threat of government penalties. The first step on the road to regaining that freedom is rescinding the ObamaCare anti-conscience mandate\u2014and protecting Americans\u2019 liberties more generally will require full repeal of ObamaCare.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While you\u2019re catching up on the news, you might be interested in what Peggy Noonan writes about the IRS Scandal over at her blog at The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I got an email last night that had the effect of a clarifying conversation. It was from a smart friend who works in government. He understood the point I was trying to make about how the current IRS scandal is different from previous ones and more threatening to the American arrangement. I had written that this scandal isn\u2019t a discrete event in which a president picks up a phone and tells someone in the White House to look into the finances of some steel industry executives, or to check out the returns of some guy on an enemies list.<\/p>\n

But my friend got to the essence. He wrote, \u201cThe left likes to say, \u2018Watergate was worse!\u2019 Watergate was bad\u2014don\u2019t get me wrong. But it was elites using the machinery of government to spy on elites. . . . It\u2019s something quite different when elites use the machinery of government against ordinary people. It\u2019s a whole different ball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what I meant.<\/p>\n

In previous IRS scandals it was the powerful abusing the powerful\u2014a White House moving against prominent financial or journalistic figures who, because of their own particular status or the machineries at their disposal, could pretty much take care of themselves. A scandal erupts, there are headlines, and then people go on their way. The dreadful thing about this scandal, what makes it ominous, is that this is the elites versus regular citizens. It\u2019s the mighty versus normal people. It\u2019s the all-powerful directors of the administrative state training their eyes and moving on uppity and relatively undefended Americans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We are definitely living in interesting times.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The short answer is, \u201cNo.\u201d The long answer is \u201cshow me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same (particularly in the Bill of Rights).\u201d What about when it comes to the HHS Mandate, which requires nonreligious entities provide coverage for artificial contraceptions, abortion services, etc.?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,36],"tags":[87,1097,64,148,1175,1176,102,225,793,1027],"class_list":["post-16049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-living","tag-economics","tag-eden-foods","tag-faith","tag-hhs-mandate","tag-irs-scandal","tag-peggy-noonan","tag-politics","tag-private-businesses","tag-stand-with-hobby-lobby","tag-the-becket-fund"],"yoast_head":"\nDo Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The short answer is, "No." The long answer is "show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The short answer is, "No." The long answer is "show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Why I Am Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-02T21:41:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T22:19:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2012\/02\/barak_hussein_obama_edits_the_bill_of_rights.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html\",\"name\":\"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-02T21:41:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-24T22:19:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\"},\"description\":\"The short answer is, \\\"No.\\\" The long answer is \\\"show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Am Catholic\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\",\"name\":\"Frank Weathers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank Weathers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?","description":"The short answer is, \"No.\" The long answer is \"show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?","og_description":"The short answer is, \"No.\" The long answer is \"show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html","og_site_name":"Why I Am Catholic","article_published_time":"2013-06-02T21:41:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-24T22:19:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2012\/02\/barak_hussein_obama_edits_the_bill_of_rights.jpg"}],"author":"Frank Weathers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Frank Weathers","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html","name":"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-02T21:41:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-24T22:19:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc"},"description":"The short answer is, \"No.\" The long answer is \"show me where it says that (or even implies it) in the Constitution, and the amendments to the same","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/06\/do-business-owners-lose-their-constitutional-rights-when-they-earn-a-living.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do Business Owners Lose Their Constitutional Rights When They Earn A Living?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/","name":"Why I Am Catholic","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc","name":"Frank Weathers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Frank Weathers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}