On the one hand, I'm thrilled that Hobby Lobby won its case before the Supreme Court, which correctly affirmed that people of faith don't give up their right to live according to their beliefs because they own a corporation. And I want to make sure people understand it's no less a big win just because the ruling only applies to closely held corporations. As Rob pointed out yesterday, that's 90 percent of all employers in this country.
The Hobby Lobby win is huge!
But on the other hand, it really troubles me how close we remain to a Supreme Court majority that would allow the federal government to take this right away. A 5-4 ruling to affirm people's basic right to freely exercise their religion is something that should never be. It should have been 9-0, because this is a basic fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution.
And, folks, this is why control of the U.S. Senate is so crucially important this November. Whether we like it or not (and of course we don't), Obama is going to be president for another two-and-a-half years. During that time, if one of the five Justices who voted with the majority were to die, retire or become unable to continue serving, you know perfectly well that Obama would use that occasion to try to add a fifth liberal Justice. If the Senate remains controlled by the Democrats, and led by Harry Reid, we would have only the filibuster to use as a check against this. And any time Harry Reid wants to, he could eliminate the filibuster as a tool of the minority.
That should terrify you, because there is nothing that man won't do to get what he wants.
We have an excellent shot at taking back control of the Senate this year, and we need to do it. If we can, it obviously doesn't mean Obama will appoint a real, conservative, constitutionalist Justice that recognizes limits to federal power. Obama would never do that! But it would limit the type of Justice that Obama could get confirmed, and it would make it possible for the Republican majority to have a real say in how far Obama can go in packing the Court with judges who share his warped view of the federal government's role in our lives.
Hobby Lobby is a great win, but in many ways it's merely the dodging of a bullet. Let's put another check between ourselves and the unrestrained power ambitions of Obama and the Democrats by taking back the Senate in 2014. Then we can start working to make sure no more narcissistic, power-hungry frauds follow in Obama's footsteps in 2016
