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Friday, September 30, 2011

Law - Rights collide ...

Recalling earlier ILB entries such as "Workers' Religious Freedom vs. Patients' Rights" (Nov. 18, 2008) and this one from Dec. 18, 2008 re "whether pharmacy owners have a state-granted 'right of conscience' to turn away customers seeking so-called 'morning-after pills'", Tom Coyne of the AP reported Sept. 28th under the headline "Notre Dame president protests birth control inclusion." A few quotes:

President Barack Obama's health care overhaul should be changed so that religious school's such as the University of Notre Dame aren't required to go against their beliefs and provide birth control to students and employees, the school president says.

The Rev. John Jenkins wrote a letter Wednesday to Kathleen Sebelius asking the Obama administration to broaden the definition of religious employer currently under consideration to ensure the school can continue its provide health care without going against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

He said the change in definition of religious employer is far narrower than current law and would require Notre Dame and other Catholic universities to offer prescription contraceptives and sterilization services to students and employees through health care plans.

Finally, this long Sept. 27th NY Times story reported by Thomas Kaplan is headed "Rights Collide as Town Clerk Sidesteps Role in Gay Marriages." Some quotes:
“New York law protects my right to hold both my job and my beliefs,” [town clerk Rose Marie Belforti] said in an interview last week, pausing briefly to collect $50 from a resident planning to take 20 loads of refuse to the town dump. “I’m not supposed to have to leave my beliefs at the door at my government job.”

But the couple, Deirdre DiBiaggio and Katie Carmichael of Miami, are arguing that the law requires all clerks in New York to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The couple are being represented by a liberal advocacy organization, People for the American Way, based in Washington. * * *

Ms. Belforti is one of several town clerks who have said the state’s Marriage Equality Act, the measure approved in June that legalized same-sex marriage in New York, violates their religious beliefs. Two clerks resigned in July rather than comply with the law.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, who made same-sex marriage a priority of his first year in office, has expressed little sympathy for clerks who object to the law. “When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose,” he said this summer. And the State Health Department issued a memorandum to clerks that refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be a misdemeanor.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 30, 2011 10:09 AM
Posted to General Law Related