WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, today released the following statement before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius:
“Obamacare is a thumb in the eye to our Constitution’s protections of religious freedom. The United States ought to be the last country on earth where people of faith are forced by their government to defy their religious beliefs. I am glad these cases are now before the Supreme Court and am hopeful the court will find this administration has reached too far.”
If Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialities Corp., both private companies, do not meet the health care law’s regulatory requirements that they include certain contraceptives, including abortifacient pills, in the health care coverage they provide employees, the companies will pay fines. Hobby Lobby estimates it will pay fines of about $1.3 million a day.
Alexander was one of 88 members of Congress who joined in filing an amicus brief on behalf of Hobby Lobby in the Supreme Court case.