ELECTION DAY 2012

While reflecting on this country's most important Presidential Election perhaps ever, as an Oklahoma Catholic Lawyer my thoughts keep turning back to David Green and the Hobby Lobby's fight against the Federal Government's attempted enforcement of laws that contravene the Green family's religious freedom and, in turn, violate their fundamental right to exercise their religious beliefs. And although I'm certainly by no means a "politico" or even one who fancies himself a "religious liberty" expert (I was a lot more interested in my alma mater Notre Dame's football game against my College of Law's (OU)  than any of the recent Presidential debates, although I did find them interesting if not decisive) I have found the Green family’s legal battle against the government to illuminate the choice in tomorrow's election like no other present day issue.

You will recall the dilemma faced by the Greens and their ultra-successful Hobby Lobby (arts and crafts) and Mardel (Christian books) businesses. Obamacare places a federal mandate on these businesses that requires them to provide their employees with insurance coverage for certain contraceptive drugs and devices, which the Greens, based upon their sincere, deeply-held religious beliefs, oppose. Failure to follow these Obamacare contraception requirements could subject the Green family businesses to fines up to $1.3M per day.

Mr. Green, from all accounts a patriotic American as well as a devout Christian, recently characterized his family's dilemma as "being forced to choose between following the laws of the country that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families." In other words, by adhering to the strict requirements of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, the Greens are forced to contravene their deeply-rooted religious beliefs that the First Amendment of our land's Constitution mandates each American has a fundamental right to preserve.

As Americans, each of us is entitled to our views, beliefs, and opinions on the economy, foreign policy, militarization, health care, life and death issues (abortion, the death penalty, etc.), and all  other issues on which our Presidential candidates seek our votes. As well, we all, of course, are entitled to our views, beliefs, and opinions about those Presidential candidates and their ability to stir the country's economy, to implement appropriate foreign policy, to properly deploy and bring home our troops and maintain an effective military, to work with Congress to assure our nation implements the right laws to enable Americans to have ample opportunity to pursue their own life, liberty and happiness, and to appoint justices who will uphold and protect our country's Constitution and, thus, the fundamental principles upon which she was founded.

And while it's most likely few would argue with the above thoughts, I likewise am convinced the very fact that David Green and his family have been forced to do legal battle with their own government in order to protect the very religious liberty our Constitution otherwise guarantees probably speaks volumes about who our next President should be -- AND, MOREOVER, WHO IT SHOULD NOT BE.