Let The Slippery Slope Begin: Government Contractors Using Hobby Lobby Ruling To Deny LGBT Rights

*"The day after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, a group of religious leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he exempt them from a forthcoming executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people.

"The letter, first reported by The Atlantic, was sent on Tuesday by 14 representatives, including the president of Gordon College, an Erie County, Pa., executive and the national faith vote director for Obama for America 2012, of the faith community.

“‘Without a robust religious exemption,’ they wrote, ‘this expansion of hiring rights will come at an unreasonable cost to the common good, national unity and religious freedom.’”*

Post-Hobby Lobby, Religious Orgs Want Exemption From LGBT Hiring Order

What? The? Fuck?

I’m actually looking forward to all the parties who are going to come out of the woodwork and demand exemptions from laws they don’t like because of their “deeply held religious beliefs.”

Maybe now people in this country will wake up and realize what a scourge on our nation the Republican Party and their puppets all throughout government — especially this radical Right Wing nut job Supreme Court — are, and vote the electable ones the fuck out of office. I really, really, really hope we get some Muslim-owned corporations that sue the government to deny Christians and other non-Muslims in their employ the use of drugs and medical devices that are made with pig parts.

You’re too worried. Alito and Kennedy said that their ruling was limited, so it’s obviously not a problem.

That’s it! I’m starting a church!

Cool, been wanting to start a new cake making business as soon as it was possible !

Cake Boss!!

:400 quatloos for anyone who gets the reference:

At first I was happy about the Hobby Lobby decision. At last! I thought, I will be able to opt out of laws I find morally objectionable! I was beginning to prepare my list when I realized that the ruling only applied to those with deeply held religious beliefs. As an atheist, my moral objections are, of course, unworthy of anyone’s respect. I will go back to obeying laws I don’t like I guess.

  1. The letter does not invoke the Hobby Lobby decision.

  2. The issue raised in the letter cannot rest on the RFRA. The RFRA requires a substantial burden on religious exercise. There is no such burden when the issue is being awarded government work – the government imposes all sorts of conditions for its contractors that it could not impose on an independent business.

  3. You have no idea how to tell the difference, and might not have any idea what I am saying right now.

  4. Maybe Hamlet thinks I’m wrong and wants to bet on the issue. What do ya say, Hammy? Let’s make this one count.

Excellent:D

It’s funny, I think back now to how many times people have told me that atheism is a religion. Trying to tell me that my lack of belief in a higher power is a belief in and of itself. Well, maybe I should use that to my advantage. I run a business that there’s some changes in the insurance code I wouldn’t mind making. My business premiums are going up something like 35% this year.

I don’t see what this has to do with any of the assertions of fact actually contained in the OP (as distinguished from whatever emanations and/or penumbrae you find therein), nor do I see how you might intend to dispute any of said assertions without recourse to wibbliness and/or wobbliness.

I… got nothin’. I’ll just slink off and see what I can pick up at The Onion’s going-out-of-business sale.

Did I say their argument had merit wrt the Hobby Lobby abomination? No I did not, asshole. Did I say it would make it through the courts and be upheld? No I did not, idiot.

But the flood gates have now been opened. So much for “believing in” fiscal responsibility. So much for wanting to put safeguards in that discourage frivolous lawsuits, because there will be many more now. This shit’s going to cost this country a fucking fortune. You religious nut jobs are like Weebles — you wobble, but you just won’t fall the fuck down no matter how much our founding fathers tried to tell you where your place was in our politics. You’re just going to keep whittling away and whittling away until you have your desired theocracy.

Welcome to the Citizens United Corporate States of Christiania.

According to the article -

*…a group of religious leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he exempt them from a forthcoming executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people.

…The letter didn’t mention the Hobby Lobby decision directly.*
I’m not sure why Dylan Scott of TPM Livewire even chose to add, “The day after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling”, to his article. Was it to establish a point in time?

To sum up Scott’s article - After the Hobby Lobby decision - some people wrote a letter to Obama asking for an exemption to an Executive Order that Obama hadn’t issued yet.

The text Shayna quoted made a point of saying the letter came a day after the Hobby Lobby decision. The title of the thread is: “Government Contractors Using Hobby Lobby Ruling To Deny LGBT Rights.”

The question of using the Hobby Lobby decision seems at least slightly relevant to the “assertions of fact.”

But perhaps you consider it a “matter of established fact” that those government contractors would succeed in such a claim?

Disingenuous much? :rolleyes:

Um… Did you write the title, “Let The Slippery Slope Begin: Government Contractors Using Hobby Lobby Ruling To Deny LGBT Rights?”

What these twits don’t seem to realize, is that the people with the final authority to grant US Government contracts Federal Contracting Officers are overwhelmingly female liberal Democrats. The list of names/companies on that letter will be put to good use any time they receive more than the mandated three compliant sources. They are not required to analyse or consider more than three proposals.

The implication is obvious. Because a religious exemption was granted in the Hobby Lobby case, now others have been emboldened to ask for a religious exemption. The fact they are asking for it before it even happened is considered better evidence that it’s because of the case. They are choosing to strike while the iron is hot, while religious exemptions are really big in the news.

What I fail to understand is why this is a bad thing. Even if the RFRA could be invoked, this is clearly about discrimination, something explicitly stated as not being covered by the RFRA by the court’s decision.

I think it’s a good thing that these people are coming out. Get them out from hiding. There’s no court case involved here. There’s no cost involved. We just get to discover bigots for free.

Well, there are protests, and the final decision may not rest with the contracting officer.

But your point is essentially solid: the President’s authority to impose conditions for the receipt of federal contracts is very broad. And the discretion exercised by contracting officers is vast.

I’m not familiar enough with Dylan Scott of TPM Livewire’s work to include the word “much” but this particular article certainly seems disingenuous.

Have the guts to admit the real scourge; religious people. The Republicans are just doing the bidding of the loudest, votingest religion. Get rid of them and some other party will buy votes from people who believe in imaginary men in the sky. The problem’s religion, not Republicans.