好必来Hobby Lobby.doc

Hobby Lobby 好必来 Believe it or not 信不信由你 The Supreme Court sides with religious firms against Obamacare 最高法院支持宗教性质公司反对奥巴马医改 TWO years ago the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. A decision on June 30th was less favourable. The Court allowed an exception to Obamacares mandate that firms above a certain size offer their staff insurance that includes free contraception. Rarely has a decision provoked such controversy. Hillary Clinton called it “deeply disturbing” , though her husband signed the law that underpins it. 两年前最高法院支持平价医疗法案，也就是广为人知的奥巴马医改。6月30号的一个决议不是那么顺利。奥巴马医改要求一定规模以上的公司需要给员工提供包括免费避孕在内的保险，而法院允许了一项例外情况。很少有某项决议能引起如此激烈的论战。希拉里·克林顿称它“让人非常困扰”，尽管她的丈夫签署了支持它的法律。 The case, Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc, was brought by two Christian families and their businesses. The Greens own Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft shops, and Mardel, a Christian bookstore; the Hahns own Conestoga Wood Specialties, a cabinetmaker. Obamacare requires firms to offer their workers all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Greens and Hahns believe that four of those contraceptives, including the “morning-after pill”, are abortifacients, since they may keep a fertilised egg from implanting in the uterine wall. 伯韦尔好必来有限公司的案例是由两个基督教家庭和他们的生意引发的。格林家族拥有好必来连锁工艺品店，和马代尔基督教书店；哈恩家族拥有康那斯多格木材专家家具制造。奥巴马医改要求公司为他们员工提供食品和药物管理局批准的所有避孕用品。格林家族和哈恩家族认为这些避孕用品的中的四种，包括“事后避孕药”是堕胎药，因为它们会导致受精卵不能进入子宫壁。 The issue was not whether these highly debatable beliefs are valid, but the circumstances under which a religious objection may trump a federal law. The constitution protects the right to the “free exercise” of religion. A 1993 law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, further requires that the government “shall not substantially burden a persons exercise of religion” unless doing so is the least restrictive way to advance a compelling government interest. By five votes to four, the court ruled that obliging closely held firms with religious owners to pay for the