Amicus Briefs Supporting Hobby Lobby at Supreme Court Outnumber Government 2-1

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The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Jan 29, 2014, 02:05 ET

Hobby Lobby Gains Diverse and Widespread Support at Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- When the clock struck midnight, 81 briefs flooded in the U.S. Supreme Court, 56 supporting Hobby Lobby and outnumbering the Government's position 2-1. In one of the largest amicus brief filings in Supreme Court history, a diverse coalition of bipartisan legislators, religious leaders, legal scholars and States stood united in defending David and Barbara Green and their family business Hobby Lobby from being forced to violate their deeply held religious beliefs or pay severe fines.

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"The broad support shows that Americans of many faiths and backgrounds want to see religious freedom protected," said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "Religious freedom is important to Democrats and Republicans, to Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others. Religious freedom is at stake here, and we are happy to see Americans of many faiths and backgrounds unite to support the Green family."

For all 81 amicus briefs, quotes, excerpts, and additional recourses visit the Becket Fund's website. The Becket Fund represents Hobby Lobby and David and Barbara Green, owners of the family business, and is the leading resource on all HHS Affordable Care Act mandate cases.

Supporting briefs for Hobby Lobby included:

Members of Congress from both parties
Twenty states
More than 150 leading scholars and theologians
International law scholars from 16 countries.
Pastor Rick Warren & Eric Metaxas and over thirty Protestant theologians
Women's policy groups
Medical groups
Diverse religious groups, businesses, and scholars:
- Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
- U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye
- International Society for Krishna Consciousness
- Crescent Foods, a halal food company
- Feldheim Publishers, a leading Torah publisher
- Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Anglican Church in North America
- President Hamza Yusuf Hanson of Zaytuna College

For more information visit here.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with one of the attorneys, please contact Emily Hardman, [email protected], 202.349.7224. Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby will be argued March 25, 2014, and decided before the end of the Supreme Court's term in June 2014. There are currently 91 lawsuits challenging the unconstitutional HHS mandate.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—from Anglicans to Zoroastrians. For 19 years its attorneys have been recognized as experts in the field of church-state law. The Becket Fund recently won a 9-0 Supreme Court victory in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which The Wall Street Journal called one of "the most important religious liberty cases in a half century."

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