OKLAHOMA CITY – A district judge in Oklahoma has granted the popular craft chain Hobby Lobby a preliminary injunction against the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare.
Following a hearing on Friday, U.S. district judge Joe Heaton issued the injunction to the company and its owners, and then stayed the matter until October 1st in order to give the Obama administration time to consider an appeal.
“There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that no individual or corporation has their legs cut out from under them while these difficult issues are resolved,” Heaton declared.
As previously reported, after a long battle in the court system, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned the denial of the injunction late last month, remanding the matter back to the district court for further review.
“[Hobby Lobby has] established a likelihood of success that their rights under this statute are substantially burdened by the contraceptive-coverage requirement, and have established an irreparable harm,” the court ruled. “But we remand the case to the district court for further proceedings on two of the remaining factors governing the grant or denial of a preliminary injunction.”
The 10th Circuit had agreed earlier this year to hear Hobby Lobby’s challenge to Obamacare’s contraception mandate en banc before a full panel of nine judges after the injunction was initially denied. In May, attorneys for Hobby Lobby had a proverbial showdown with the United States Department of Justice in Denver, Colorado.
“Is religion the kind of right that can only be exercised by a natural person?” Kyle Duncan of The Beckett Fund asked the court. “Well, the question nearly answers itself. … It’s not a purely personal right.” Read more here.