The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, applauds today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the “Hobby Lobby” and “Conestoga Wood” cases upholding religious freedom and ruling unconstitutional the Obama Administration’s health care mandate to private employers—requiring them to provide contraceptives and other women’s health services—when the employers’ religious beliefs would be violated by providing such services through their insurance plans.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Nathan Diament, Executive Director for Public Policy, issued the following statement:
“Today the Supreme Court actualized the fundamental purpose of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the ‘free exercise’ of religion. In essence, the Court’s ruling stands for the proposition that—even when the government seeks to implement valuable policy goals—it must do so without trampling upon the conscientious beliefs of American citizens, especially, as is the case here, when there are many other ways to meet the policy goals without infringing on religious liberty. ”