Alveda King: Supreme Court HHS Mandate Case Raises Civil, Human Rights Issues

Monday I did an interview on Airing the Addisons with Wil and Meeke, discussing the HHS mandate and Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods. Click here to listen to that show. 

This week at the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), a case involves the lives of every American—yet many are unaware.

On Tuesday, SCOTUS heard arguments on two cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood v. Sebelius, regarding their lawsuits against the HHS mandate. Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, led prayers with other pro-life leaders and religious freedom advocates at a rally in front of the Supreme Court building in support of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods. Planned Parenthood and others will be busing in to rally in favor of the HHS mandate.

The irony now is that during the oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday on whether the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act violates the free exercise of religion, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan suggested that employers who have moral objections to birth control should not provide health care coverage for their employees.

They even recommended that employers opt to pay taxes to avoid the mandate and give employees a $2,000 raise to buy their own insurance. Does this sound like a socialist agenda?

This is an important question for human and civil rights advocates because much is at stake regarding the constitutional rights of religious freedom for every American.

Yet another case deals with infringement against religious freedom of nonprofit companies. In our Priests for Life case, I join Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana as parties to our HHS lawsuit—actually the third in a series filed against the mandate.

The irony is that the HHS mandate seeks to force Priests for Life—an organization that teaches that contraception and abortions are dangerous, life-threatening and immoral—to pay for, directly or indirectly, the very injustice that we are fighting against.

Our case is in the appeals process in the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court. While the appeal works its way through the appeals process, which can be a lengthy undertaking, we have petitioned SCOTUS to take up the case because of its “imperative public importance.” That petition will be heard on Friday.

Please pray that SCOTUS will make the right decision and rule in favor of the Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Woods case that the HHS mandate is unconstitutional, and pray that SCOTUS agrees that our Priests for Life case is of such “imperative public importance” that it will take up the case and then give a favorable ruling.

These legal matters raise civil and human rights issues. It is an injustice to rule on the side of death-dealing agents such as carcinogenic fertility blockers. My uncle, Martin Luther Kind Jr., fought for civil rights over 50 years ago, and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act is coming up later this year. Yet in 2014, our government is working against our liberties.

May God have mercy and help us, because constitutional rights, like civil rights, are worth fighting for!

Alveda C. King is the daughter of the late civil-rights activist the Rev. A.D. King and niece of Martin Luther King Jr. She is also a civil rights and pro-life activist, as well as director of the African-American outreach for Priests for Life. Click here to visit her blog.