Small wins but we'll take 'em!

It has been a rough week for President Obama in the highest court but more importantly it has been a good week for the rule of law and individual liberty over government overreach. The Supreme Court ruled against his recess appointments to stack the National Labor Relations Board with union cronies. Also a ruling last week against so called abortion clinic "buffer zones" that made certain public spaces off limits to free speech and expression. Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby over the government's attempt to force them to provide certain types of contraception, certainly a good sign for non-profits and Christian colleges. If a private business cannot be forced to provide certain types of contraception, certainly other organizations will not have to either. Finally the Court ruled that unions cannot force non-members to pay dues, kind of a "well duh" ruling but it was being attempted as a way to refill union coffers so it was a necessary decision.

The Hobby Lobby decision was probably the most tenuous leading up to today because it deals with some esoteric ideas. A business is not a person (legally it is but you know what I mean) but it usually has people behind it. For a family business like Hobby Lobby it is part of their identity. Having worked in banking and dealing with a lot a business owners I can attest that it can be hard to distinguish where the family ends and the business begins. Telling families that they have no say in what sort of non-critical insurance they provide to employees is a sure way of getting people out of business. More critically this gets to the question of whether the Federal government can force people to engage in economic activity. That issue, which is really the critical one, is still up in the air.

It is worth stating that these are pretty small wins in the face of a tide that is headed the other way. Every week a new judge finds a "right" for homosexuals to marry and overturns the will of the people. We should also be cautious to note that these are secular wins for liberty, not Kingdom victories. I am still concerned about the church banding together with unbelievers and heretics for the purpose of fighting Caesar. Regardless as I have said before it is better for people to live where there is more liberty rather than less so I will cautiously enjoy the small wins today.