Hobby Lobby, an American chain of arts and crafts stores, has been in the news recently for their religious objections to providing coverage for contraception in their employee health plans. Some have argued that because Hobby Lobby provides bingo games as part of their employee benefits, the company is violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
The RFRA is a federal law that was passed in 1993 in order to protect religious freedom. It states that government cannot substantially burden a person’s religious exercise unless it is done in a way that is least restrictive of religious liberty.
The law does not allow for any exceptions for businesses or individuals.
The Hobby Lobby case began when the company filed a lAWSuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in order to exempt themselves from providing contraception coverage under their employee health plans. The company claimed that providing such coverage would violate their religious beliefs.
The RFRA was introduced as a defense against HHS’s claim that the company must provide contraception coverage.
In March 2014, a federal district court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, finding that the company did not have to provide contraception coverage because doing so would violate their religious beliefs. The court also ruled that the RFRA applied to Hobby Lobby because it is a business, not just an individual.
This ruling opens up the possibility that other companies with similar religious objections could also use the RFRA to avoid providing certain services or products.
The conclusion to this article is that while Hobby Lobby does have bingo games as part of their employee benefits, it is not clear whether or not this constitutes a substantial burden on their religious exercise because it does not seem as though playing bingo would be very different from using contraception in terms of how it would affect their faith. While this case is still ongoing, it seems likely that Hobby Lobby will win its appeal and be allowed to continue offering bingo games as part of their benefits without having to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees.
