Following Hobby Lobby ruling, faith groups want religious exemption to ENDA

Hobby Lobby Is Already Creating New Religious Demands on Obama:

Quote:

Americans have always disagreed on important issues, but our ability to live with our diversity is part of what makes this country great, and it continues to be essential even in this 21 st-century. This ability is essential in light of our national conversation on political and cultural issues related to sexuality. We have and will continue to communicate on these broader issues to our congregations, our policymakers and our nation, but we focus here on the importance of a religious exemption in your planned executive order disqualifying organizations that do not hire LGBT Americans from receiving federal contracts. This religious exemption would be comparable to what was included in the Senate version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed the Senate with a strong, bipartisan vote. Without a robust religious exemption, like the provisions in the Senate-passed ENDA, this expansion of hiring rights will come at an unreasonable cost to the common good, national unity and religious freedom.

I'm not surprised by this. ENDA has included a religious exemption to ENDA in churches, religious newspapers, religious-based service groups, religious non-profits, etc. But now secular for-profit groups can claim religious exemptions to specific parts of ACA, so its easy to carry this exemption over to other federal laws like ENDA.



The Hobby Lobby ruling narrowly applies only to "closely held" businesses, meaning it applies to the 90% of US businesses and who employ 50% of the US workforce.



This ruling will set a precedent if-and-when an employer challenges an LGBT-inclusive ENDA.

via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/1kf1kqg