“Just because you open your business to the public, that
doesn’t mean the public has the right to run your
business.”
Today, Republican
candidate for Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued the following statement:
The
contraceptive case that was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this morning is
one of the most important cases the nation’s top court will hear this year, or
any year. At the heart of the debate is whether businesses such as Hobby Lobby
and Conestoga Wood Specialties or religious organizations such as the Little
Sisters of the Poor have the right to be forced by the government to provide
coverage for services such as abortion pills, contraception, or sterilization,
despite a deeply rooted religious or moral objection.
The fundamental
question is whether a business owner’s personal religious beliefs are overruled
by the contraception mandates covered under Obamacare. If we lose the concept of
religious liberty and the government is able to force business owners to pay for
things such as the morning-after pill, how soon will it be before we lose the
concept of property rights in this country?
As I recently
stated in a National Review Online interview, just because you
open your business to the public, that doesn’t mean the public has the right to
run your business - and certainly, neither does the
government.
Visiting
the nation’s capital just a few days before the Supreme Court will hear oral
arguments … Brnovich returns to the issue of religious liberty, emphasizing that
if we lost it, we would be losing something fundamental.
The
traditional image of Lady Justice, often seen in courthouses and halls of
government, has both scales and a sword. Don’t forget that sword, Brnovich
cautions, as if to remind himself as much as anyone else. Reflecting on some of
the executive and judicial tendencies of the day, he says it is “bad enough when
politicians get into the business of picking winners and losers.” When you have
the power of the state sword you have a “solemn obligation” and “are held to a
higher standard.” Above all, this means using that power to protect and defend
the innocent and vulnerable.
To read Mark Brnovich’s full
interview with National Review Online, click here.
