First Amendment - 1
Øbama - 0

A federal court issued an order Friday that halts enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against a Colorado family-owned business while an Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit challenging the mandate continues in court.

The mandate has generated massive opposition from pro-life groups because it forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.

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In his order, Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado said that the government’s arguments “are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion. As the Tenth Circuit has noted, ‘there is a strong public interest in the free exercise of religion even where that interest may conflict with [another statutory scheme]….’ Accordingly, the public interest favors entry of an injunction in this case.”

Bowman said Judge Kane explained that the government’s “harm pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon Plaintiffs’ constitutional and statutory rights.”

Sadly, this decision does not apply nationwide, and does not even apply beyond this one company, Hercules Industries, and its owners, the Newland Family. But given that we now have a federal district court recognizing that the ObamaCare regulation that would punish businesses and institutions for living up to the religious beliefs of the individuals and groups that own them, we have a chance to strike down Obama's freedom crushing regulation.

Of course, the best option for America is to defeat Barry Hussein and his Congressional supporters at the polls in November.