Dolan v. Obozo, Round One: Reverse & Pin, 4 Points

Cdl Dolan and the 1st Amendment win a big one

Yesterday, a district court judge struck down the Obamacare contraception mandate as applied to the Catholic Archdiocese of New York and its constituent organizations as a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Lotsa detail follows from Gabe b/c he does excellent work that the MSM will not do.

First off, this is a PERMANENT INJUNCTION.

--This case is important...because it recognizes that even the act of having to claim the exemption is an unacceptable burden on religion....

-- ....The judge found that, despite the administration's contortions to suggest the Archdiocese might not even be covered, the contraception mandate scheme was sufficiently burdensome to proceed to a decision.  (There's also a brutal slap-down of the US Attorney in that section--by the judge!  Worth reading.)

--...in this case, the administration was not able to claim that the contraception mandate serves a compelling purpose because it has been falling all over itself (largely for political reasons) to offer exceptions to the law.

--...the administration realized near the end of the litigation that the third parties designated by the Archdiocese to provide coverage may not actually be required to provide contraception. The district court rightly noticed that if that argument is true, the mandate obviously serves no purpose.

And here the judge slaps the shit out of Obozo's vainglorious un-Constitutional assholery:

...The Government first argues that the alternatives above are infeasible because the defendants lack statutory authority to enact some of them. This argument makes no sense; in any challenge to the constitutionality of a federal law, the question is whether the federal government could adopt a less restrictive means, not any particular branch within it. It would set a dangerous precedent to hold that if the Executive Branch cannot act unilaterally, then there is no alternative solution. If defendants lack the required statutory authority, Congress may pass appropriate legislation....

SCOTUS, here we come.

In this instance, I will cheerlead for Cdl. Tim!!