States Cannot Force Citizens to Violate their Religious Conscience

Despite both Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor cases, states like California are continuing to try and subvert the Weldon Amendment, and force citizens to violate their conscience. Learn more at FirstLiberty.org/Briefing. The United States Department of Health and Human Services recently announced through its Office of Civil Rights that HHS is pursuing an enforcement action against the State of California.  You see, something known as the Weldon Amendment guards against states accepting federal dollars to require those using its health insurance to fund abortion services. It seems that the State of California has required The Guadalupanas Sisters, a Catholic order of religious women headquartered in Los Angeles to fund abortion services through the premiums they pay in insurance services. Now, if the State of California fails to provide assurances to HHS that it will end the practice, the federal agency plans to refer the state on for further investigation, if not prosecution. You would think that, in the years since our Supreme Court decided Hobby Lobby and over the years of litigation concerning the Little Sisters of the Poor that states would begin to understand that they can’t force its citizens to violate their religious conscience. As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his concurring opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, “In our constitutional tradition, freedom means that all persons have the right to believe or strive to believe in a divine creator and a divine law.  For those who choose this course, free exercise is essential in preserving their own dignity and in striving for a self-definition shaped by their religious precepts.” To learn how First Liberty is protecting religious liberty for all Americans, visit FirstLiberty.org.