Federal Judge Strikes a Blow Against Regulatory Fascism


Via the Becket Fund (.pdf) we are informed that a Federal Judge (the same judge who ruled in 2010 that DADT was unconstitutional and ordered an openly gay service member reinstated to the military) has struck down Washington state pharmacy regulations that can only accurately be described as fascistic. The regulations in question declared that no pharmacy in the State of Washington was permitted to refuse to dispense Plan B on conscience grounds. That’s it; no requirement that the pharmacy be state funded (pharmacies, unlike hospitals, generally manage just fine without nurturing from the government teat), just a blanket law that you cannot refuse to dispense Plan B on conscience grounds. Keep in mind, you can refuse to dispense it because of business reasons (it’s not profitable, no reliable source of supply), just not for conscience ones. The Becket Fund notes concerning the regulations:

  • The plaintiffs in the case are a family-owned pharmacy (Ralph’s Thriftway) and two individual pharmacists (Margo Thelen and Rhonda Mesler) who could be forced out of the pharmacy profession solely because of their religious beliefs.
  • Washington is one of only two states in the country that requires pharmacies to stock and dispense these drugs in violation of conscience. The other state (Illinois) recently had its regulations, which are modeled on Washington’s, struck down as unconstitutional.
  • The Regulations were passed under a cloud of controversy. In 2006, the State Board of Pharmacy unanimously voted to support a rule protecting pharmacists’ right of conscience. When Governor Christine Gregoire learned of the vote, she publicly threatened to fire the Board’s members, replaced several Board members with candidates screened by Planned Parenthood, and personally joined in a boycott of Ralph’s Thriftway. ?
  • Buckling under the Governor’s pressure, the Board ultimately adopted a version of the Regulations drafted by Planned Parenthood and recommended by the Governor. The Regulations prohibit pharmacies from declining to dispense Plan B for reasons of conscience—even though the Board found no evidence that anyone in the State had ever been unable to obtain Plan B (or any other time-sensitive medication) in a timely fashion because of religious objections.


Now, obviously, the Ninth Circuit is going to have their say on this particular issue and perhaps even the Supreme Court. I’m not really here to provide a legal analysis of the First Amendment issue anyway. To me, whether or not the regulations are constitutional, they are anti-American and despicable. What right does the government have to tell a wholly private business that they cannot refuse to carry a certain class of goods because of moral objections?

Let us draw an analogy: Regardless of how you feel about the legality vel non of porn, I daresay even the most strident libertarian (and hopefully the most strident liberal, although I am beginning to wonder) would object if a state government decided to order that Lifeway Books was henceforth required to stock Playboy on the shelves.

Or let me put this in another way that leftists will understand. I like bacon cheeseburgers. I will order a bacon cheeseburger from virtually any type of restaurant I frequent. I get annoyed when I go to a restaurant and they don’t have a bacon cheeseburger on the menu. Suppose hypothetically that I went to a restaurant and was dismayed to find that they had no bacon cheeseburger on the menu, and that when I inquired about this, they responded that they were Muslim and had religious objections to handling and serving bacon. Now, if I started a public campaign that successfully got legislation passed that made it illegal for restaurants to refuse to serve bacon cheeseburgers on religious grounds, what would the left (correctly) say about me? That I was an enemy of America and all it stands for.

There is absolutely no justifiable reason for a government to force a privately owned property that receives no government funding to carry a product that is anathema to their religious beliefs, other than to intentionally insult and subjugate the religion in question. I do not know what the courts will ultimately do with this decision; but I do know that if the people of Washington have any loyalty to the ideas that make America what it is they will rise up and demand that these regulations be legislatively overturned regardless.



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24 Comments Leave a comment

You're being naive, Leon

Paula (Diary) Wednesday, February 22nd at 6:53PM EDT (link)

Everyone knows pornography is addictive. It’s only a matter of time until Theobama mandates that all stores have porn readily available and that all employers provide free porn to all medically diagnosed addicts.

Paula
My blog: Bold Colors
Follow me on Twitter: pbolyard

It was only a matter of time

SKully (Diary) Wednesday, February 22nd at 10:27PM EDT (link)

I wrote this blog:

http://www.redstate.com/skully/

as an example of gov’t overreach. It is an imaginative example of not only gov’t mandating porn, but we get to collectively pay for it via our mandated cable bills.

It’s getting scary. It doesn’t matter who the Republican candidate is for president – we need to prevent our Supreme Court from being stacked for another generation.

“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.” James Madison

I've always thought that

kentucky Wednesday, February 22nd at 11:00PM EDT (link)

no Red blooded carnivorous American should be denied access to delicious pork just because they happen to be a patient at a Jewish hospital or are a student who has to eat in the cafeteria of a Jewish school. Therefore, the government should decree that all organizations that serve food in any capacity, must provide pork and other non kosher meats. If someone wants to do the government’s work, they have to submit themselves to the will of the government. If they want to do the Lord’s work, they should confine themselves to a church building.

What's next?

godschosen Thursday, February 23rd at 2:47PM EDT (link)

Porn sold @ Toys-r-Us? By law?

Abortion ads by

mirac777 (Diary) Friday, February 24th at 5:22AM EDT (link)

Planned Parenthood on the walls of daycares? Why not force Muslims to carry and serve pork products in all their restaurants?

How about all grocery stores being required to carry human meat so the Cannibals from Zimbabwe aren’t being discriminated against?

Of course this crud comes out of Wash State. They are after all, LIBERALS.

United we stand…. Divided we fall.. into the pits of Socialism.

 
 

Of the people, by the people, FOR the people...

godschosen Thursday, February 23rd at 4:09PM EDT (link)

But I thought that “We the people” had SOME say in this!

 
 
 

Seriously...

despondent1 (Diary) Thursday, February 23rd at 8:22AM EDT (link)

Honey, every word out of Obama’s mouth is porn!

 
 

according to liberal logic...

mearsc Wednesday, February 22nd at 7:32PM EDT (link)

You are trying to take away my bacon cheeseburger!

SUFFER!!!!!!!!!!!

godschosen Thursday, February 23rd at 4:12PM EDT (link)

Guess you have to drive another block or 2!!!!!!!! Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 

Liberals

greyeagle Wednesday, February 22nd at 8:47PM EDT (link)

Liberals are simply going wild since Obama was elected. They run roughshod over anyone who does not agree with them.

Not Eligible

atillathehun Thursday, February 23rd at 7:20AM EDT (link)

Soros struck a huge blow for Karl Marx in supporting the ineligble candidate. I’ve been saying that OBama is an ideological Marxist since he gave the speech were he told all of us that “I will fundaementally change America.” All I heard were crickets. Now I am beginning to hear “Marxist.” DUH

 

It's all about hope and change.........

godschosen Thursday, February 23rd at 5:13PM EDT (link)

…..whether “We the people” want it or not!!!!!!!!

 
 

Planned Parenthood again???

lineholder (Diary) Wednesday, February 22nd at 9:59PM EDT (link)

This organization has far TOO much influence on what goes in our society. Abortion. Sex education in the classroom (remember that incident of oral sex with 2nd-graders in CA?) And this…their sticky population-control fingerprints digging deep into private sector enterprise?

May God have mercy on us and provide us with a legal genius who has the spine to take on these monsters.

Well, they do offer bloody infant sacrifices

deanfromohio Wednesday, February 22nd at 11:17PM EDT (link)

to demons; apparently the demons are returning the compliment by supporting PP and the Obama Administration. Rick Santorum was just ahead of his time in fingering Satan’s attack.

In which case, fast and pray.

 
 

Newt would!

paco12348 Thursday, February 23rd at 9:27AM EDT (link)

Newt would take all of them on and win. He’s the only candidate that sees the entire picture and the guts to take it on and clean it up. THAT is the very reason the GOP has tried to destroy him. They know he will will shake up their playhouse in Washington along with the Democrats. Romney may help the economy but he will stand for the status quo and nothing of any great importance will change in Washington.

 

WA State Gov. Christine Gregoire

beaker55 Thursday, February 23rd at 10:41AM EDT (link)

thought she had the world by the tale after she led the winning legal team in the huge tobacco settlement a few years ago. Washington state had a surplus of cash afterward, until Gregoire channeled all the surplus money into the Govt. Unions to buy their votes. It worked. Now, she’s one of the most unpopular governors in the country, but that hasn’t deterred her; last week she twisted enough legislative arms to legalize gay marriage in Washington State. And, knowing she’ll be defeated, she’s decided not to seek another term (I think she’s set her sights on a position in the next Obama administration). She’s crammed her liberal agenda down Washington State’s collective throat. Fortunately, WA is a referendum state and the gay marriage law and it’s newly defined class of ultra-citizen (with new constitutional protections based not on natural law, but on lifestyle orientation/choice) will be over-turned, in due course. Liberal Fascism is alive and well in the U.S. Good-bye America, it was nice knowing you. Our children’s children are a doomed generation.

Unfortunately

edintexas Thursday, February 23rd at 11:25AM EDT (link)

The 9th Circus ruling on CA’s Prop 8 might keep that from being upheld. The situation would be similar, gays “given the right” to marry (there’s a conundrum – the state “giving” a “right”, but Lefties think that way) and the “right” being taken by the referendum.

I don’t know where all this will end, and likely will not be around to see the end. But I don’t think it will end well for the country.

 
 

I don't always agree with you, Leon . . .

mainstreamconservative (Diary) Thursday, February 23rd at 10:44AM EDT (link)

But you are spot on with this article. Absolutely 100pc spot on.

 

What I'd Like To Know

lakeworthcane Thursday, February 23rd at 10:50AM EDT (link)

Why is a federal judge ruling on a state law? It’s a Washington state issue. A Washington state supreme court judge should’ve issued the ruling.

The pharmacy regulation should be struck down, for sure, and the governor should be called, by the Washington state congress, to testify as to who in blue blazes she thinks she is–the moron of the year?–forcing the pharmacists to scrap their rule and come up with another one that suits her. If the governor refuses to testify, then the Washington state congress should send Washington state troopers to arrest her and bring her in: slap the bracelets on her wrists and drag her, preferrably kicking, screaming and wetting herself, before the state’s congressional investigating committee.

“Now see here, little missy . . ..”

But it’s a Washington state issue, not a federal issue, so the federal judge should’ve rightfully refused to hear the case: should have passed it off to the state’s judicial system.

The Court's Jurisdiction

edintexas Thursday, February 23rd at 11:34AM EDT (link)

I don’t know whether the issue was taken to State courts. The probability, in WA state and perhaps even more in the State District in which the plaintiffs reside and where the case would first be heard, is that the Judges who would hear the case in the State courts would be sympathetic to the State and would rule for the State.

The Federal jurisdiction issue in this case is obviously the religious right of the pharmacy and pharmacists to follow their conscience and religion’s teaching, particularly when doing so does not even inconvenience other citizens, much less endanger them.

They went to the court which they believed would give them the best chance for a positive outcome.

 

The First Amendment

Leon H. Wolf (Diary) Thursday, February 23rd at 11:39AM EDT (link)

is incorporated against the States as well as the Federal government via the 14th Amendment.

————
We can’t stop here. This is bat country.

 
 

Oh for the bad old Bush days when he was forcing

johnt Thursday, February 23rd at 11:09AM EDT (link)

his malevolent Republican will on all us innocents. It seems that some forcing of wills is better than others, that people who hated Bush and threw the word fascist around like a beachball, are now enjoying the use of power. Except here, a welcome respite in the battle against leftist control freaks.

“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville

 

One Minor Quibble

edintexas Thursday, February 23rd at 11:40AM EDT (link)

If you operate a pharmacy these days, you have both Federal and State money coming in to your business. I doubt there is a pharmacy in the United States which does not take regular Medicaid, or CHIPS, patients. As these are Federal/State programs, both Federal and State money is involved in payments for services under these programs.

That still doesn’t excuse the riding roughshod over the religious rights of these folks without any valid reason to do so. As I posted elsewhere, with other pharmacies available to dispense the drug there was not even an inconvenience to the public.

Doesn't follow

Leon H. Wolf (Diary) Thursday, February 23rd at 10:33PM EDT (link)

Medicaid/Medicare pay part of the patient’s bill, not the pharmacy’s. It’s not a subsidy it’s payment they would otherwise be receiving from private pockets.

————
We can’t stop here. This is bat country.