Attorneys for Religious Owners of Private Closely-Held Companies in Chicago Applaud Supreme Court Hobby Lobby Decision
Civil Rights Attorneys for Religious Owners of Private Closely-Held Companies in Chicago, Triune Health Group and Ozinga Bros., Who Object to Being Forced by the Federal Government's Obamacare Regulations to Provide Health Care Coverage for Abortifacients, Sterilization, or Contraception Applaud Today's U.S. Supreme Court Hobby Lobby Decision Striking Down these Regulations as Violative of Their Clients' Rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act
CHICAGO, June 30, 2014 /
Christian Newswire/ -- Attorneys for
Jubilee Campaign's Law of Life Project representing Chicago corporate employers, Triune Health Group and the Ozinga Bros., as well as the individual family owners of these closely-held companies, say that in light of today's Supreme Court's
decision in
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, they will soon make motions to lift the pending federal district court stays of their legal actions to prevent the federal government from imposing confiscatory fines and other legal sanctions on a their companies for exercising their state and federal free exercise of religion rights not to be forced to pay for abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and the related counseling now being imposed upon non-exempt businesses by Illinois and federal law.
Christopher and Mary Anne Yep, the devout Roman Catholic founders and owners of the closely-held, family-owned
Triune Health Group, Ltd., having already filed separate
federal and
state court complaints, and received preliminary injunctions temporarily stopping the federal and the Illinois state governments, pending further litigation, from forcing them under sanction of severe monetary penalties and other regulatory requirements to provide insurance coverage and pay for abortifacients, sterilizations, contraceptives and related counseling that they conscientiously believe constitutes material cooperation with evil as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. The Yeps embrace a sincerely-held belief which is embedded in Triune's mission statement that each individual be "treated with the human dignity and respect that God intended." The Obamacare contraceptive mandate, administered by HHS and the other federal agencies named in the lawsuit, as well as the Illinois insurance contraceptive mandate, administered by Illinois' Department of Insurance, require Triune to provide and pay for abortion-related and contraceptive coverage for its employees and their families, which imposes a gravely oppressive burden on the Yeps' deeply held religious beliefs.
Similarly,
Ozinga Bros., Inc. and many of their family members who own this closely-held family business, providing concrete, decorative and green concrete products, compressed natural gas, and transportation solutions, have filed a separate but similar federal court action and have also received a preliminary injunction enjoining Obamacare's requirement that the Ozingas provide and pay for abortifacient drugs whose provision violates the Ozingas sincerely-held religious beliefs
Both the Triune and Ozinga Bros. actions pending in federal court in Chicago have been stayed for more than a year by the judges handling these cases pending the United States Supreme Court's
decision today in
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby which effectively decided all the pertinent legal issues in favor of the identical legal positions asserted by the Yeps and the Ozingas in their respective cases.
"As was confirmed today by the United States Supreme Court, the federal and Illinois state governments are coercing our clients to violate their conscientious convictions in a fashion that is completely at odds with the resounding declarations of our Founding Fathers and our modern Supreme Court jurisprudence," said
Samuel B. Casey, Managing Director and General Counsel for the
Jubilee Campaign's Law of Life Project. Mr. Casey also had high praise for the Yeps' and Ozingas' courage in standing up for their fundamental rights, applauding them for "taking a stand to defend their right to run their businesses in a way that does not conflict with their faith and religious free conscience." Mr. Casey concluded:
"The Yeps and Ozingas and their family companies are far from alone. There are
49 cases pending in the lower federal courts, involving closely-held for-profit companies like those owned by the Yeps and the Ozingas, with some courts granting the preliminary injunctive relief requested and others declining to do so. Now that the Supreme Court in its Hobby Lobby decision today has struck down Obamacare's Contraceptive Mandate as it applies to these people and their companies, we trust that the Obama Administration will agree to judgments against them in all these cases and, as required by law, to pay the substantial attorney's fees and costs the government's illegal conduct has caused our clients and some many other Americans to incur simply defending religious freedoms the Obama Administration should have acknowledged all along."
The Law of Life Project is a public interest legal organization dedicated to legally defending the right to life and dignity of the human being from biological conception until natural death in all matters worldwide where such a defense is required. Jubilee Campaign is an international charitable organization that seeks to be a "voice for the voiceless" promoting the human rights of all, particularly women and children in countries which imprison, terrorize or otherwise oppress them.
