I would really like to hear the opinions of some lawyers or people who have experience with religious freedom and precedent in case law, just to see if the bishops have a shot at winning their case. My own knowledge on where the government ends and religion begins is scant. I know you cannot create your own religion out of whole cloth to dodge taxes and child sacrifice is a clear no-no, but where does the government normally fall when a religious institution is pitted against unbelievers? I have many rabidly Catholic friends who are just enraged with the mandate, and when I tell them many Catholic institutions are already under stricter rules in certain states and don't get the same exemptions, they simply don't believe me. I also tell them that even if you are working for an institution does not mean you are in any way forced to take on their religious views. I understand devout Catholics think birth control is immoral, and that they watch on as the rest of the America sinks into a moral abyss before their very eyes, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are forced to agree.
I bring this up because I read about pharmacists in Kansas being able to deny selling someone products they feel goes against their conscience. I had this awful vision of a rape victim, disheveled and frightened, going into a pharmacy only to have a zealot lecture her on what God wants for her, and denying her the morning after pill, making an already horrific situation that much worse. I doubt a woman who has just been raped has the presence of mind to do detailed research on the internet as to who will sell her what she needs and who will not. I bring up this question because I noticed many on our side of the fence brush off the bishops as religious zealots, but I'd like to hear a legal defense and rationale. These people are fundamentalists, and they cannot leave the rest of us alone; it is part of their belief system, so a clash will eventually happen. If we maintain Scalia's vision of an America where power balances are ignored and you are left vulnerable without redress to greater powers, then we could see a lot of horrible things to come.