When Politics Reshapes the Culture, by Hadley Arkes

By Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing, July 16, 2019

Note: TCT is delighted today to welcome back one of our founding contributors, after temporary occupation with other matters, the one and only Hadley Arkes. – RR

The scene: Outside the Supreme Court of the U.S. in March 2014.  I was on my way to the Court to take in the oral argument in the Hobby Lobby case.

The question was whether the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby stores – and providing already generous medical coverage to their employees – would be obliged, under Obamacare, to provide coverage for contraception and abortion.  The family bore serious moral objections to abortion, reinforced by their religious convictions.  Eventually, a closely divided Court would come down on the side of the Greens.

But outside the Court that day was a circus of demonstrators, including many young women who had left their sobriety at home.  One of the more prominent signs said, “My employer should have nothing do with my contraception.” To which I thought: The Green family could not have agreed more. ….