Legislation trumps administrative regulation, left irate

Lost in the sound and fury coming from the left in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby is this point, made in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle by Emmett C. Stanton:

People choose to forget that when Obamacare passed so narrowly, it was in large part because the administration misled pro-life Democrats about its abortion and abortifacient coverage.

The legislation never would have passed if the regulation that the Department of Health and Human Services later imposed on employers had been included in the law itself. And, needless to say, Obamacare never would have passed if Congress had honestly chosen to exempt it from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which it had the unquestioned power to do.

All the Supreme Court did was hold that RFRA – introduced in the House by Chuck Schumer, passed unanimously in the House and passed by a 97-3 vote in the Senate with the strong support of Ted Kennedy – trumped a mere administrative regulation.

Indeed.

Via Wesley J. Smith at NRO.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses