A Reply

Did you read his entire speech or are you going off the Huffington Post headline/story? Just like the birthday party hoax that HP played up to the hilt last week, you may want to dig a little deeper and read the man's words before tar and feathering him. Just a suggestion.

You may also want to do some reading and consideration of what the Obama Administration's Justice Department - Civil Rights Division has been doing/not doing since taking office. Even with partisan blinders on, their actions do not meet the letter or moral idea of justice is blind and equal for all.

Yes, I did read other sources; in Politico they report that,

The 42-year-old governor calls the upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether government can force Hobby Lobby craft stores to cover contraception through their health insurance plans just one of the battles being fought over religious liberty.

I happen to believe that Hobby Lobby is very wrong; there have been a number of Supreme Court cases where they have ruled businesses and religious organizations cannot pick and choose what parts of a law they want to follow. In one case the Supreme Court ruled that the Amish had to pay Social Security and another case the court ruled the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) could not withhold a portion of their income tax that goes toward the military. How this court will rule on the Hobby Lobby case is any ones guess.

The article goes on to say that,

Citing a piece of failed legislation in Illinois, Jindal suggests that liberals will eventually try to pass laws designed to pressure churches to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies against their will. He also will blast the New Mexico Supreme Court for ruling last August that a wedding photography business violated the state’s Human Rights Act by refusing to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.

I would like to point out that every state that has passed anti-discrimination laws or has marriage equality has a clause in the law exempting religious organizations. But once again the courts have ruled rightly so, that if a religious organization owns a business that is open to the public or they are using public funding they cannot discriminate. The 2007 in New Jersey case of Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association which is owned by the Methodist said that when they agreed to tax exempt status they agreed  to allow the public use of the pavilion.

In fact it was the Republican’s that threaded on violating the separation of church and state when in Indiana they passed IC 31-11-11-7 Solemnization of marriage between persons prohibited from marrying, which made it a crime for a religious clergy to marry a same-sex couple in a religious ceremony.

As for the Obama administration’s Justice Department - Civil Rights Division, I fully support their efforts. They have applied what the federal courts have ruled (including many conservative judges that were appointed by the Republicans) that discrimination based on gender identity and expression is a violation of title VI Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Also the courts have ruled that prohibiting marriage equality is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

And thank you for your comment that I am a good writer.