Title: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia
Headings: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014)
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014)
Sources
How to cite
Publisher
Rights
Last modified
Topic
Subject

Content: According to Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby, all of the stores that he had founded, including the first store opened in 1976, incorporated his Christian beliefs into their everyday functions. In 2012, Green and his son Steven, who was the president of the company, maintained ownership of all of the Hobby Lobby stores. The Greens filed their suit against the director of Health and Human Services, or HHS, Kathleen Sibelius, and challenged the HHS contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act. The Greens argued that the contraceptive mandate of the ACA violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, or RFRA, and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The RFRA prohibited the national government from substantially burdening individuals exercising their religious beliefs. The RFRA stipulated that the government can only burden one’s religious exercise if the government’s actions meet two requirements. First, the government’s actions must advance a compelling government interest. Specially, the US government has an obligation to promote the general interest of its citizens. In the case of the ACA and the contraceptive mandate, the HHS argued that the mandate aimed to promote and protect the health of its citizens by offering women all FDA-approved contraceptive methods. Second, the government’s actions must achieve that compelling interest in the least restrictive means possible.