Help CFI take this fight—your fight —to the U.S. Supreme Court!
December 6, 2013
The Center for Inquiry fights for science, reason, and secular values—help us take this fight—your fight —to the U.S. Supreme Court!
CFI, through its lobbying and legal activity, fights tirelessly to preserve the separation of church and state and protect the rights of nonbelievers. With your help, we’re now poised to undertake action in a critical Supreme Court case.
The Supreme Court recently
announced that it will hear arguments in two cases regarding the contraceptive
mandate of the Affordable Care Act. This mandate requires all employers,
apart from houses of worship, to provide prescription birth control products
without charging a co-payment. The mandate is based on the latest studies from
the medical community which establish that birth control has significant health
benefits for women and their families.
The
plaintiffs in these cases are two for-profit employers, Hobby Lobby Corporation
and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation, that argue that their “right” to
religious free exercise has been substantially burdened by the requirements of
the mandate.
If the Supreme Court
determines that a for-profit corporation can exert religious rights, the
effects will reach far beyond contraceptive care.
Almost every part of law would be affected by the radical idea that a
for-profit entity possesses religious rights. Such an outcome would undercut
completely the secular character of our legal system, with potentially hundreds
of legal exemptions for religious belief being created for corporations.
We will be filing an
amicus brief with the Court to deny
these businesses the special privileges they seek based on their alleged
religious beliefs and to ensure that quality health care is available for all
employees.
We work to advance
science and secularism throughout the year.
CFI has already participated in one Supreme Court case this year, namely the
important case of Town
of Greece v. Galloway, in which we filed an amicus brief
challenging a New York town’s practice of having prayers open its board
meetings. We are also challenging restrictions on the right of individuals
to have a nonreligious wedding ceremony with a celebrant of their choosing as
well as Florida’s massive faith-based funding program. In our lobbying
activity, we partnered with other organizations to defeat legislation that
would have created a federal school voucher program—and sent billions in subsidies to
religious schools. And at the United Nations—where we are
one of the few secular organizations with representation—we have worked to
raise awareness of the persecution of atheists and humanists that,
unfortunately, is still ongoing in many countries.
I
could continue, but you get the point: we’re hard at work and we’ve
accomplished a lot, but much more work remains to be done. We can succeed in this struggle
only if we work together!
So if you are as concerned as I am about the continuing influence of religious
dogma, the privileging of religious beliefs, the use of your tax dollars to
fund religious institutions, and the need to protect the rights of the
nonreligious, then
please give as generously as you are
able to the Center for Inquiry so that we can continue our fight!
Please take a few minutes right now to make a donation to CFI today.
Ronald A. Lindsay
President & CEO
Center for Inquiry
1-800-818-7071
