Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140325

What you think. Our phone lines are open. Host you can catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages. Host a very good Tuesday Morning to you. That hobby lobby case is the subject of many articles and editorials and Opinion Pieces in todays papers. Go through a few of them for you this morning. Here is the wall street journal. Contraceptive case skews ideological lines. The lead editorial in the dont openn, pandoras box. Discrimination is likely to extend far beyond simple access to contraception. And usa today, hobby lobby case fuels bigotry. We want to start by reading a bit from an opinion piece from over the weekend on this case from pastor rick warren. His piece appeared in the Washington Post. Does our constitution guarantee the freedom of religion or does it merely allow a more limited freedom to worship . The freedom tove place our beliefs and ethics at the center of our Business Practices or must we ignore them when we form a company . Hobbytcome of sebelius v lobby will affect every american because any religion allowed to be practiced only inside a house of worship and not in the daytoday business of life is a worthless faith. The administration argues that because hobby lobby is a Forprofit Corporation the company has no religious rights under the First Amendment. Government says that examining hobby lobby from paying for drugs and devices to which the owners object would amount to an imposition of the greens faith on their employees. In this case, the administration is insisting that those who form an operate a business based on religious beliefs must disobey what they believe is gods standard in order to obey the governments program. If it wins, the first purpose on which the United States was founded with the severely damaged would be severely damaged. We will be talking about the case for most of todays show. Just to get the conversation started, should there be more or less religion in public life today, the conversation already happening on our Facebook Page. In walters writes less. If you want to follow religious police, worship at your church or at home. The government cannot choose one religion over another according to our constitution. Also on our Facebook Page this ning facebook. Com cspan everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs. However, the u. S. Is not a theocracy. Below that, how about cspan and the government stay out of peoples beliefs . You can follow the conversation, cspanwj. Mark is waiting in michigan on our line for independents. Thanks for calling washington journal today. The 20thy comment is ford started Ford Motor Company after a while, when he saw that liquor might be getting in the way of his employees doing their job, he brought up gangster types to enforce morality right in their homes, ok . For the majority of the 20th century, the legend wasnt being screened from the rooftops and things got along very well, aside from world war ii, i mean, you know. Religion wasnt being blared out every window, and the middle class grew to its greatest heights ever. Now that we are in these predicaments and people are wanting to inject religion into all facets of everybodys life, it seems like things have gotten worse. No to the religion in everything. Host our phone lines are open. Also, a poll taking place on our Facebook Page started just a few minutes ago. Already 51 people voting that there should be more religion in public life and 60 people voting less. Craig is waiting in cedar rapids, iowa. Caller good morning. We know that the declaration of independence talks about our inalienable rights from our , and our Founding Fathers were referring to the triune god of the bible. We dont have separation of church and state in the constitution. It was supposed to be a beautiful balance between free exercise and establishment clause, but we have appointment abuses because we treat but we have torn that to pieces because we treat politics as a Football Game you lose, we win. If you look at romans 13, it said that god ordained to the powers that be so god was involved in the powers of government and the job discussion is right there for people who work in the government. But we dont want to include god but we want all of his blessings , and it doesnt work that way, and we wonder why everything is falling apart and we have gridlock, because we dont know how to Work Together seeking common ground. We have got to quit functioning this way. I house divided against itself cannot stand. That is abraham lincolns thin kin. We have got to Work Together as fellow americans and stop all this divisiveness. It has been in th been an abomination. We cannot suck everything out of america and expect it to survive. Work together, be fellow americans, quit destroying this country just because you want to win and you to lose. Host craig in iowa this morning. When a twitter page on our twitter page host we will keep looking on our twitter page and Facebook Page for your comments. Tyrone on our live for democrats. Caller good morning, how are you doing . Host im doing good. Caller we need more religion because look at what is going on in the world with samesex marriage. That is an abomination to the lord. Congressman with the president , calling them sobs. We need to stop this politicking host tyrone, how would you do it . Caller people got to go to god and pray. Forget about the constitution, go to the holy bible. We need to go to that. Youve got too much corruption in politics and you need to get all these lawyers the abominations under god. Get god in your life. I am a deacon and i live by the word of god every day. But on politics and put put down politics and put god first, not the constitution. Host we will be talking about the hobby lobby case for most of todays washington journal. Some information on the folks who are in favor and will be on hand throughout the Supreme Court today. Lawmakers will be able to take a stand outside the u. S. Capitol, recording to the Washington Times. Representatives michele bachmann, diane black and marsha blackburn, virginia foxx, kevin brady, joe pitts, and Steve Scalise will gather at high noon and have a press conference there at the Supreme Court. The opposition will also be on hand. Some 40 organization will host a ,business rally including the gay and lesbian task force, American Civil Liberties union, and naral prochoice supporters will be in attendance. You see people lined up at the Supreme Court. Lets go to tommy waiting in madison come alabama, on outline for independents. Caller good morning. I think we should have more religion in our public life. Im not a religious person myself, but i see politics the way it is today in this country and its just crazy. Ins like there is no faith anything anybody wants to do anymore. Where are we going to vote for and where do we propose this host tommy, how does religion fix that . Think thatl, i just it has helped us so long in the past and if we go back to what is help us in the past we will in from the street and wont repeat it we will learn from history and wont repeat it. Host eric on outline for independents. Caller first, i got us say, holy cow. Im a little horrified at some of the previous callers already. Enthusiastically cite the christian bible as if it is the only book, and the man from North Carolina sounded to me to be an elderly africanamerican man said to forget the constitution. Holy cow, does he know how different his life would be without it . First, we need to define public, and when we talk about incidences like the sebelius case and the stuff we have been seeing in arizona of late, we need to define public. If you are a business and operating and open to the public , with a business license, Health Department inspections, things like that, a funeral home, take your pick, you need to not discriminate in the same way that you cannot discriminate in housing. If youre making a Public Offering in a capitalist market, you need to not discriminate in that way. If that is what you wanted to, salesyour church and big and yard sales and swap meets and things like that and shop for wheres their shop for your wares there. You dont get to cherry pick. I would love to be able to turn away christians. The problem with rampant evangelical christianity in this country is why i am actually emigrating out of the United States. Many,unately, we have many problems, but they seem to offers of the date from this christian moralizing. Host eric calling in from new york. 2 Opinion Pieces. First, we showed you the headline from usa today. Couple son, as this this couple bishops from New Hampshire episcopal bishop from New Hampshire. They object to certain forms of Birth Control, claiming they constitute abortion. The claimn to say, that corporations through their owners have freedom of religion, a very slippery slope. Should employees be held hostage by the police of its owners . To,other piece to point you the Editorial Board of Washington Times today talking about the undermining of faith and the Affordable Care act. The goal of the administrations grand scheme with the Affordable Care act was never primarily about raising money with taxes. The healthcare law aims at the more profound objective of forcing americans to act like democrats. The high court will hear arguments tuesday about whether this is appropriate. Esther obama reaches into the pockets of others to pay for mr. Obama reaches into the pockets of others to pay for free benefits. The ability gives this president and unprecedented power to reshape society in his image. Mr. Obama not only makes decisions about health care, he decides matters of faith, too. It is up to the Supreme Court to say that the administration has gone too far. We hope that chief Justice Roberts will rediscover the bold print in the constitution and resist the urge to be nice to rescue obamacare a second time. Richie in mount vernon, new york, on outline for republicans on our line for republicans. Richie. Caller yes. The problem people have with man, it says in the bible, that we will have life ever more abundantly and dont have to ask nobody. The only debt we owe on another is to love one another. Things, life 2 would be a hell of a lot better, much better. In new york, sorry, didnt mean to cut you off. Thought you were done. I want to show you some comments who the members of congress have posted statements on twitter and online. Heres speaker John Boehners statement yesterday on the Supreme Court and religious freedom. In the United States of america host speaker john weiner in his statement yesterday. Speaker john boehner in his statement yesterday. A few treats for members of congress. Tweets from members of congress. Host randy in michigan on our line for democrats. Caller good morning, and i want to thank you and all the fine folks behind the scenes we dont get to see for putting on this great show. Host appreciate it, randy. Go ahead. Caller personally i believe there should be less religion in the public. I have no problem with people practicing religion. I have grown up around it all my life. I dont believe in organized religion. I sat in on different ones and i cant even see where they can agree on one got because we have so many different religions. Andve gone into a lutheran seen the treatment and ive gone into christian and told them i was muslim and seen how i was treated. Yes, all religions and they cant even agree on one god. Ask them what height they believe he is. You would have from six foot to 62. Thats fine, but keep it in your churches. I would be the first one a fight so that you can practice your religion. Im also the first one to fight so that you keep it out of our public life. I dont believe what you believe. I sure dont want to go to a god that is antieverything you hear on here by some of these religious people. They dont believe you should do this, you shouldnt do that. What gives you the right to say what somebody should into the shouldnt do what gives you the right to say what someone shouldnt do . You cant even prove. You dont have any facts in that book, uf believes. Host one oth you have beliefs. Host one other tweet, sandra flukes. Host we will be talking about that throughout the morning on washington journal. Want to show you some other headlines from around the country. Here is the New York Times. Obama will seek limits for an essay on call records an essay on call records nsa on call records. Congress, itby would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to Senior Administration officials. Nsaer the proposal, the would end its systematic collection of data about americans calling habits. The book records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. The nsa could obtai specific records only with permission from a judge, usually using a new kind of court order. Ther the Plan Administration developed and now advocates, the officials said, it would undergo major changes. If you want to read more on that, it is in the New York Times and several of the papers today. On Edward Snowden, on the front page of usa today, a comment from former president carter, who defended the disclosures from Edward Snowden in an interview with usa today on monday. Thatys the evidence intelligence agencies were collecting metadata on phone calls and emails have probably and constructive in the long run. i think its an intrusion on one of the basic human rights of americans, to have some degree of privacy for you dont want other people to read what we communicate. does he view snowden as a hero or traitor . theres no doubt that he broke the law and that he would be susceptible to prosecution if he came back here, but it is important for americans to know the kinds of things that have been revealed by him and others, and that is that since 9 11 we have gone too far in intrusion on the privacy of americans privacy that americans ought to enjoy as a right of citizenship. comments from former president carter in an interview with usa today. Just asking you to get the discussion going this morning. Do you think there should be more or less religion in public life . We also have a poll on our Facebook Page, and on our twitter page, cspanwj. Our linemissouri on for republicans. Caller good morning, i am a conservative republican and also a christian. It seems like the only true groups it is all right to discriminate against these days is christians. We are to be silent and not express our views on anything and not have views on anything and not even supposed to participate in government unless we forsake our religion. You have all these groups like the aclu trying to silence us and strip any public display of our religious beliefs all over the country. If you were to do the same thing that, itl black people is all right to have equal rights for everybody else but you have just got to be quiet and keep it in your own little group, there would be an outrage. That is just one example. The problem is that all the left believes in that Big Government andhere their god, abortion, the right to exterminate Young Children or any lame excuse you can come up. Ith, is their holy grail they have no respect for the rights of others, yet they are constantly harping about their own rights. It basically needs to be stopped a we will have nothing but socialist or communist country, which im afraid most of them want anyway. Shot outside the Supreme Court, where people are ,ining up for that case protesters on both sides at the Supreme Court. We will be showing you live shot all morning as we discussed this subject, the hobby lobby case being argued on capitol hill. On our twitter page host we have asked our viewers, should there be more or less religion in public life . We are getting your thoughts and tweets on the hobby lobby case from members of congress. Senator dan coats host we are going to be getting into the details of the case with Supreme Court correspondent for reuters, Lawrence Hurley did he will be joining us in about 20 minutes here on Washington News out ofeaking norfolk, virginia, the naval base there, according to the ap wire service. A sailor was shot and killed at the naval station in norfolk in virginia. Late last night Security Forces killed a male civilian suspect. Says the shooting happened around 11 20 p. M. Monday aboard the uss mahan. Davis would not describe the circumstances of the shooting but said the scene is secure. Ron in eagle river, wisconsin, on our line for democrats. Caller yes, good morning on this chilly day again. I dont think we should extend religion and he extend religion any more than the church on sundays or if you are in a private school. Religionn why which would you want to see more of in our lives . Would it be muslim religion . No . Would it be zoroastrian, protestant . Should i go on and on . Which religion should be dominant because no religion should be dominant. The question for you, it is not exactly about whether religion should be dominant or not. We are asking if folks should be able to express it or practice it more in public life and if lawmakers should be more upfront about their religion. What do you think . Caller yes, practice it in their lives if they wish to, but dont proselytize on other people who dont want religion. There is people who dont believe in religion in this country. Ahead and push it on , its just as much if not more of an inconvenience than allowing people just to study and worship the way they want in church, or synagogue, or temple, or wherever else they wish to go ahead and practice religion. But no, not in public life. Not in making decisions that includes peoples lives in this country who may not be religious. Host ron calling in from wisconsin this morning. Here is an email that came into our inbox this morning. Felix in North Carolina writes that the overriding question really is this do we want more government in our lives and businesses . The elections in november will answer this question. A few other headlines. Here is the front page of todays wall street journal. Russia anders shun raise pressure. The heads of state of the Worlds Largest advanced economies moved to isolate russia, severing a key link between moscow analyst world after 2 decades. The leaders of the g7 effectively disbanded the larger g8 by excluding russia until it changes course on ukraine. They also agreed to exert punitive sanctions on russias energy, aching, finance and Arms Industries unless osco begins to dialback plans to absorb the region of crimea. While chastising moscow and a joint statement, they left the door open for russia to one day return to its share in the g8. russia has a clear choice to u. S. ,the leaders of the u. K. , france, germany, japan, italy, and canada said. The wall story of street journal. Also subject of an editorial in the wall street journal today. Putin gets the boot. After dumping russia from the g8, how about calling the world cup . Pulling the world cup . The logic seems to be doable opened a prospect of mr. Putins return if he doesnt grab more territory. That isnt likely to stop the russian strongman. We recommend pulling the 2018 world cup from russia. That would really hurt. Editorial board of the wall street journal. One more story on russia and crimea. Aid package for ukraine advances in the senate. It begins what promises to be a heated weeklong debate in congress over the role of the International Monetary fund and how it should play in the crimean crisis. The 7817 vote showed considerable bipartisan support for the measure, bolstered by the votes of some republicans who spent last weeks congressional recess in ukraine. If you want to read more of that, that is in the New York Times. The debate is also taking place on capitol hill and you can watch it here on cspan. Later today there is House Foreign Affairs Committee Meeting at 10 00 a. M. To talk about the Ukraine Support bill. It will mark up a pending legislation to promote ukraine 70 and Democratic Institutions while section ukraines sovereignty and Democratic Institutions while sectioning those who would undermine independence and stability. That is happening live on cspan 3. We have about 10 minutes left on washington journal to talk about this question, should there be more or less religion in public life. Live shot of the Supreme Court this morning where the hobby lobby arguments are set to take place. Spencer on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I dont know who came up with a question but it seems elicitcally designed to religion or how you shouldnt have religion, which doesnt really seem to meet to be the question that is. Eing addressed by the courts the question might be should businesses be forced to provide and specific devices. Host spencer, how would you answer your own question there . Caller i think that the government that she and it seems perfectly reasonable to me that the devout christian hobby lobby, they already provided the pill and other contraception. They have an objection to plan b and certain devices. I would be more interested to hear if they paid their employees well and treat them well. Like you are able to create controversy here when you post a question in that , which shows bias by an arrogant elite who probably only hangs out with. Ther media types it is not a very controversial thing and if you put the question in the way that it is, 90 of the people who call and say what business is it of . Ybody to say it would destroy 30 of the businesses in this country so that we can gobble down lots of planneb b pills. Host spencer, we will bring in a Supreme Court reporter from reuters to discuss the issue of the case caller the question host we will certainly get to that and others as well. We want to get the discussion going. Line forur independents. Good morning. Caller they should keep state and Church Separate and stop paying Public Employees to take a religious holiday off if they dont want to recognize religion. They shouldnt be paying them. Thats what i got to say. Host all right, stand from connecticut. Harold in ohio on our line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im quite concerned that religious freedom, freedom of i dont think religion should be forced on anyone. However, i think the right to peak publicly amongst your eers or whomever you are addressing is still a right that must be maintained through our freedom of speech. The other thing i would like to point out is somewhere in the Health Care Bill on page 100something there is a muslim term that states that the muslims are exempt from having to be involved with the Health Care Bill, and they will not be penalized financially for not doing so. It seems like a conflict, or contradiction, rather, that people who have religious add thatns to not abortion part into the Health Care Programs at the companies, it seems like a contradiction that they cannot do that. Host harold, we will get into some of the religious exemptions for individuals and religious institutions as you talk about this case later in the show and examplest the business there at hobby lobby and discuss that with the roundtable of guests coming up in about an hour with a Supreme Court correspondent coming up in a couple minutes on washington journal. Other headlines we want to point you to. Here is the Seattle Times today. Hope dims as search turns up no signs for life, talking about survivors and the search in the giant mudslide in washington state. The mudslide killed at least eight people and demolished dozens of houses, according to the Seattle Times this morning. Deadcials confirmed 8 monday night. The death toll had stood at 4 and as of this morning, the death toll up again today. Headline, the mystery of the missing flight, the hasysian airlines flight, been solved by a revolutionary use of satellite data, the headline from financial times. U. K. Based company solve the mystery at the final course taken by flight mh370. On the basis of thin mints on the basis of the information, the flight that had set off from kuala lumpur and headed for beijing crashed in the sea southwest of perth. Is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new data, flight mh370 and it in the southern indian ocean. And i in the sub ended in the southern indian ocean. may in racing, wisconsin, on our line for republicans. Caller good morning. I am so happy. Lobby washobby against murder. They do give contraceptives, but murder, that is one of the 10 acteddments, and people so nice to each other because they had some belief in some kind of system, which is known god. Howcently saw a segment on muslims treat women. They are probably more radical and they treat them like a piece of meat. I dont want that kind of thing going on. If theyy exempt come to this country they should obey our laws. Host this was in his report he saw . What are you referring to . Caller yes, it was a news report. It was pretty interesting. Host what was the news outlet . Im sorry. Caller it was just this program. , also ofnews reporter the bible, which i believe in. There are so many things happened today that are written in the bible. I have recently in the last 10 years or so and very interested in privacy and i see it happening before my eyes. Interested in prophecy and i see happening before my eyes. Host anthony in louisiana on our live for democrats. Caller good morning. Thank you, cspan. I just want to say that a lot of ofes we take mans law ahead gods law and history has shown us that it creates problems in our country. I think our country is becoming more and more divided between democrats and republicans. We just need to pull together as a country. And all of this bickering and stuff going on every day about religion you know, when we , all ofying in school the shootings and stuff going on in our country, we need god everywhere and our country. Whatever your religion is, practice your religion, enjoy your religion, and enjoy your higher power. That is all i really wanted to say. Thank you, cspan. Host and that will do it for this first segment of washington journal today. We will be back with reuters Supreme Court correspondent Lawrence Hurley to talk about the hobby lobby case and look at the legal arguments on both sides. Later we will have a roundtable discussion on the case. We will be right back. To tell you the truth, this year it has been very difficult for me to offer the kind of ourl Leadership Organization needs, because every time i have to talk about the needs of the country, the needs for affordable homes, jack ideas idea and an developing here, every time i try to talk about the need for minimum wage, the need for daycare centers, ideas on both sides of the aisle, the media have not been interested in that. They wanted to ask me about personal finances. Ou need somebody else so i am going to give you that back. We will have the caucus on tuesday. And then i will offer to resign the house sometime before the end of june. That be lets not try to get even with each other. , please dont get in your head that you need to get somebody else because of john tower. Thatrats, these dont feel please dont feel that you need to get somebody on the other side because of me. Lets restore this institution. The rightful priorities of this country lets all Work Together to achieve them. Our nation has important business and it cant afford these distractions. And that is why i offered to resign. I have enjoyed these years in congress. I am grateful for all of you who have taught me things and been. Atient with me a quotationey had that harry truman used to like. Fame is af date vapor, popularity and accident. Wretches take wings. Those who cheer today my cruise tomorrow. Only thing indoors one thing endures, character. I am not a bitter man and i am not going to be. I am a lucky man. Privilegeven me the of serving in the greatest institution on earth for a great toy years, and i am grateful the people of my district in texas, grateful to you, my colleagues, all of you. Od bless this institution god bless the United States. [applause] from 35more highlights years of house for coverage on our Facebook Page. Cspan, created by americas Cable Companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host and we will keep talking about the muchanticipated oral argument taking place today at the Supreme Court. You can see a live shot of it now. To help set the stage for us, we are joined by reuters Supreme Court correspondent Lawrence Hurley. The challenge that is being heard today stems from a provision of the Affordable Care act. The claim, as i understand it, the 1993 religious freedom restoration act. What did that law do and how did it the to todays argument . Guest thanks for having me. Standard forthe how people can object to government interference how government will government regulations interfere with their religion. It is various levels people have to get through before you can win the case. In this particular case, the question is whether the Forprofit Corporation can. Ctually make such a challenge in this case it involves companies that are providing Health Insurance. The issue is whether they even have the grounds to make the claim. Host lets set the stage for who the players are. We hear about hobby lobby but it is a case involving a couple different companies. Guest there is a whole series of companies all around the country who have made these claims. The Supreme Court has only agreed to hear 2 of those cases. The 2 cases before the court are hobby lobby, run by evangelical christians, and the other is conestoga wood specialties, run by mennonites. Both of them have made the same type of claim, saying that they will object on religious grounds to providing some of the contraceptive coverage required under obamacare. Host Kathleen Sebelius is the named defendant in this case. Who is making the arguments today for each side . Guest right, so on the government side will be the solicitor general, donald really donald verrilli. He is the main governmen lawyer who argues before the Supreme Court. Arguing for the challenger is a very prominent private attorney named paul clement. These are the same 2 lawyers who faced off when obamacare, the main law, was before the court and the court decided that case in 2012. Host these guys know each other well. Guest yeah, they do. Host could you take us briefly through the arguments on both sides . Start with the governments case with verrillrilli. That theey claim corporations themselves, the owners dont have a valid claim. They say the company cant make the claim because they dont have religious feelings, and the companies merely providing company is merely providing benefits as required by the government. The owners themselves, managing the company, they are not actually providing the service and sells directly has the service themselves directly as a company. So the second part of the question, the government says they have a compelling interest in providing Health Insurance s to women allive around the country. On the other side, the position a that this provision imposes substantial burden on their religious belief, and if they dont do what the government wants them to do, they will be fined quite heavily. They say that the government has other ways to achieve the goal. F providing the coverage there is no need for the government to be imposing on their religious feelings. Host we are talking with Lawrence Hurley, Supreme Court correspondent for reuters. We are showing you live shots of the Supreme Court throughout the morning on the washington , and we will be discussing this subject for the next hour and a half or so. Host Lawrence Hurley, before we take some phone calls, take us through the mechanics of how the arguments work this morning. This is an unusually long set of arguments that will be taking place, correct . Guest normally it is hourlong arguments. In this case theyve extended it by 30 minutes, so a 90 minute argument, and the 2 lawyers we discussed earlier will take turns. Paul clement for the challengers goes first, and then the solicitor general goes. Both of them will be up there answering lots of questions from the 9 justices and trying to get a word in edgewise. Host who are the justices to watch . Guest generally the rule of thumb when you are at a Supreme Court argument is that whatever what Justice Anthony kennedy has to say. He is often the swing vote in close cases. Especially on sort of these types of issues. So everyone will be keeping an eye on him. And possibly looking out for interesting comments from other justices that might indicate which way the court might go. Ont one of your previews this case, you talk about the corporate rights issue that is being discussed here. Explain what that is, because it is something the court is touched on before but in the area of Campaign Finance, correct . Sort of an, this is interesting issue because it creates a lot of controversy. In 2010, the court decided the case called Citizens United, lifted some campaignfinance restrictions on corporations and unions. People said some critics of the court said they were too poor corporation, to probusiness too pro corporation, too probusiness. This brings up the idea of whether corporations can ring up religious objections and some say that the court says they could, this could be used in all sorts of ways in the future to object to Government Relations they dont like. Courtyou say that the threads the needle on the subject. How could they do this on this case . Guest if they wanted to avoid getting into that issue, they could allow the case to go forward just by finding the owners of the companies could make the claim. The government says they shouldnt be able to, but the Appeals Court that decided one of these cases, that is the way that they ruled. Host when will we know what the court rules . Guest usually we should get a decision by the end of june. Host the mechanics of howard works from Lawrence Hurley. Of how it works from Lawrence Hurley. Rosanne,tart with waiting in florida on our line for democrats. Rosanne, good morning to you. Caller good morning. This is regarding the question whether or not more or less religion should be in government. , governmentemember shall create no religion. However, no religion or all religion is guaranteed under the First Amendment. If you are an atheist, muslim, jew, or christian, you are guaranteed the right to practice as such and guarantee that freedom, not just in a place of worship or on sundays or saturdays. Is imposing a hca law that violates that right. The First Amendment is being violated. Ande were many beheadings burnings at the stake under king george. Religion,acticing his or for being a witch. A bloody battle was fought over this. We need to remember these things. Host Lawrence Hurley, the caller raise up the Affordable Care act. What could the ruling in this case mean for the Affordable Care act . Is the act itself actually under threat in this case . Guest no, as most people know, in 2012 the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care act eno in a 54 decision. This case, although it involves a lot of very divisive issues, the Practical Impact could be somewhat limited. It doesnt affect the viability of the obamacare law, and also doesnt directly affect even the contraceptive provision. It would allow Certain Companies that can show or their owners that can show that they have strongly held religious objections to get an exemption from the contraceptive requirement. Hurley, what is correspondent at the Supreme Court. Will you be at the chambers today when the arguments are happening . Guest i will, yeah. Host how many Supreme Court correspondents are there in the chambers . Guest the fulltime Supreme Court press corps will be there host how big is that this court . Is that press corps . Guest permanent members is about 20 people. Because it is a big case, there are reporters from other news organizations who will be there. Probably over 100 reporters inside the court. And probably quite a few outside the court as well because as you have seen from the pictures, there is going to be a lot of demonstration outside the court. Host how long have you been covering Supreme Court issues in your reporting career . Guest ive been doing it for 6 years now. I didnt actually cover the health care ruling, but i did cover the Citizens United case we talked about earlier. Host here is how then from ohio puts this case and i want to get your take on what he says. The First Amendment protects the Free Expression of religion and prohibits government from imposing their view of religion. The question from the court is whether the government is imposing its views on this family or prohibiting this family from practicing and expressing their religion as they see fit. Is that a good summation of what is happening today . Guest what is interesting is that under the Court President under the court precedent, under the First Amendment, the court said that it is a general law, that applies equally to taxes or such as Social Security. You can have a religious objection to that. The same way that people cant, for example, if you are antiwar, you cant just say im not going to pay taxes to go to the pentagon. That is pretty well established. Somessue is whether, to extent, if the government is already provided some exemptions, which in this case they have to religious institutions, whether that could be extended to other people that have religious objections. Host karen asks on twitter host you touched on that just a little bit. Guest actually, that is one of the potential outcome the potential outcome would be if the company lost the case, they could just say we are not going androvide Health Insurance they could give employees more money to provide Health Insurance instead of providing it themselves. Host 15 minutes left with Lawrence Hurley, Supreme Court correspondent for reuters. He will be in the chambers today for the hobby lobby argument, here to answer your questions before heading over to the Supreme Court, where it is starting to snow on capitol hill. You can see the press Court Setting up. Press corps setting up. Sharon on our line for republicans. Caller good morning. Host you are on with Lawrence Hurley. Go ahead. Caller yes, im calling because i believe that everyone should have a right to believe what they want to and not have their rights infringed on by other people, you know im saying . And then i believe the big picture behind everything that is going on is the devil. We are not fighting people. It is evil spirits in high places host sharon, can i ask you, you said that rights shouldnt be infringed upon. In this case whose rights do you think are being infringed upon . I believe the government is trying to take christians rights from them. Is the enemy is trying to take our freedom away. Prayer is the key to everything. We were showing our viewers some of the pictures of protesters outside the Supreme Court. How unusual is it to have people . Leep overnight is this expected to be one of the biggest cases of the courts term . There are typically a few cases per term to get a good turnout. I have heard people queuing up behind the court since friday on this one. With the cold weather im sure it has been unpleasant. This case is probably the biggest this term as far as the interest goes. We had the gay marriage cases in big case on voting rights. Along with the protesters we are arty seeing we read earlier that members of congress will be hosting a press conference outside of the courthouse to talk about this case. Can you talk about the role of congress in the hobby lobby case. There are members of congress from both parties that one of them, senator ted cruz, republican from texas, actually wrote his own brief. Before he was a senator he was a prominent lawyer. He knows the law. Host and we will go to charles waiting in Daytona Beach florida. Youre on with the Supreme Court correspondent from reuters. I think it is really wrong for any religion, any company that has a religion, that they believe a certain belief. If i worked for a buddhist company even though i am protestants, i dont follow what they believe. , respect their religion 100 anybody that believes in any religion. I do not respect that they should written french on my theys as to not believe should in french on my rights as to not believe what they believe. Is not the first time the freedom of restoration act has been in the news, dealing with laws around the country. In arizona this was the subject of a law that the governor did not sign. That was state law, not under federal law. There was pressure not to sign that. Host is it the subject of other challenges . Is something that folks are looking to put some of these cases on the Supreme Court . What is new heres is the question of whether a , a forprofit company, can make an objection under this law. Writtenthe law has been hasnt been interpreted by the Supreme Court before. That is the key thing here and what people are looking for. Wasas there must there much opposition when this was passed in 1993 . Guest no, it was passed pretty efficiently. Daniel on our to line for republicans. We are talking with Lawrence Hurley, Supreme Court correspondent for reuters. It is not just a religious issue, it is also a health care issue. Consuming Birth Control pills are actually doing something thats harmful to themselves. If you read the label, it says it can cause heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Host are you still with us . Not just ais religious issue, it is a health issue. Host i want to talk about the history of this case before it reached the Supreme Court. Reached bydecisions lower courts leading up to this case. How did hobby lobby and the spare in their decisions . Supreme court rules in different ways, which is generally why it takes Different Cases if the lower courts are divided. In the two cases of the courts hearing today, the Appeals Court decided opposite ways. Caseobby lobby won their in the Appeals Court in denver, where the court said that the corporation could make a claim. Is in the other case, which pennsylvania, the government won that case. A lot of the courts have weighed in, including the Appeals Court in washington. The company couldnt make the claim. Lets go to eric waiting in denver, colorado on our line for independents. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Question i have is relating to the artificial corporations. A corporation is considered an off considered an artificial person create when you create a corporation you artificial person. When you create a corporation you create an artificial person. How does an artificial person have spiritual rights . They dont. They are because we created it that way. We have religious rights. An artificially created person cannot claim those rights. Host you are talking about this corporate rights argument hurley was talking about earlier . I think we lost him there. If you can talk more about the corporate rights issue and where the justices have come down on this topic. You mentioned one of the pvs cases involving the f ec one of the previous cases involving. He fsc is the first time the court has had a case on whether Forprofit Corporations can claim a case under this federal law. The way they are connected is if this court was to rule that companies can make these claims then critics of those types of decisions will put it together with what they would describe as further evidence for probusiness. Roberts court treated differently than other courts in the past . How have other courts treated this issue . Guest generally the Roberts Court is seen by some critics as being rather probusiness on a whole range of issues. People would see that is just one aspect of that. Lenny is on our line for independents from maryland. Youre on with Lawrence Hurley from reuters. Caller hello. I know a few plaintiffs on this case against the government. It wasious to know if muslim owned companies that brought the case to the government. Was muslim owned companies that brought the case to the government. Host who are some of the other Companies Involved . 80 companies . Guest i cant remember the exact number but there are quite a few. All of them are closely held companies. This is not the case of microsoft or apple trying to get this type of exemption. Companies whowned are all religious and have the same religion. Ownerspany where the have different religious views since they all have the same dues and they describe it they expressed the religious views through the company in a way such as giving donations to andl religious groups celebrating religious holidays. Different to a publicly traded company. Only casent the happening at the Supreme Court this week. Although there is lot of activity today. One of the case is being watched of secret service and how they treated protesters. Can you describe that case . It was about president george w. Bush and one night there were some protesters himby who were who poked and secret service moved them slightly. This led to litigation as to whether they were correctly moved in the secret service treated the bush protesters differently to how they treated probush protesters. The term ends in june. We are starting to get some of the big decisions. Due to makecourt is some decisions just before the oral argument in the hobby lobby case. Cases, suchme big as issues of Campaign Finance and another case about what types of prayers can be public prayers can be made before a legislative meeting. Host what, those expected to come . Guest 10 00 a. M. Host a question from twitter guest no. Says the amendment government cannot endorse a particular religion. Obviously individual people have their religious views. These cases are about conflict. Host lets go to richard waiting on the phone from georgetown, texas on our line for republicans. You are on with Lawrence Hurley. Is is thereuestion a provision in the health care someplace to exempt am i on right now . Host he is asking about the religion exemption provisions and health care act. Is that something you can discuss for us . Guest in terms of the contraceptive prayers contraceptive provision, the government invented religious there was an outcry from nonprofit Catholic Schools and groups like that who said they did not want to provide this coverage. The governor the government , they them accommodation still have to provide the coverage but they dont have to provide themselves. The Health Insurance will provide it but they have to sign for the waiver saying the object saying they object. That has led to litigation. That itself could be an issue that could end up at the Supreme Court again. Host Lawrence Hurley is with reuters. We will give you time to get up to the Supreme Court to watch the arguments. We appreciate you coming on. Up next, two perspectives on the hobby lobby case. We will be joined by Elizabeth Wydra and ed whelan. Dus talksin bogar about tension over ukraine. An update from cspan radio first. In addition to the Supreme Court case, other headlines. Congressional action to authorize sanctions on russia over the crimea annexation could be delayed over competing house and senate bills. Senate legislation has advanced while members of the gop controlled house object to provisions dealing with the International Monetary fund. They are prepared to write their own bill. Senate continues to work on the ukraine built today. 10 nate comes in on comes in at 10 and will be live on cspan television. Hasukraine government accepted the resignation of their defense minister. Interior ukraines minister says a prominent member of a radical nationalist movement played a key role in antigovernment demonstrations was killed in a Police Operation to detain him. First Lady Michelle obama in jing, encouraging rural i rural Chinese Students to get a good education. She cited herself, basketball star lebron james, and Howard Schultz as people with modest backgrounds succeeding. Some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Have you ever heard of fracking . Hydraulic fracking . No. Fracturing . No. Congress ordered the Environmental Protective Agency to look into dangers close to water sources due to hydraulic fracturing. Studies untilced 2016. Can we really wait that long, congress . We have announced the winners of this years cspan student cam competition on what is the most important Issue Congress should address this year. Watch the top 21 videos starting tuesday on april 1. See all the winning documentaries online at student cam. Org. Years bringing Public Affairs events from washington directly to you. When you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences. And offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Watch us in hd, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. Washington journal continues. Host to continue our discussion on todays Supreme Court discussion, we are joined by whelan. H wyder and ed guest one of the questions is whether hobby lobby as a corporation 10 ring their claim that these particular forms of contraception are being covered under the Affordable Care act violate their religious liberties. Host this is a standing issue . Guest it is a question of whether the corporation can claim the rights to free exercise of religion in the same way a living breathing human being can do. My organization filed a brief that said if you look at the original meaning of the constitution, you see the founders thought of religious liberty protection as being very personal, a right of conscience and dignity. It doesnt translate well when you are talking about a an artificial corporate entity. Do you think this is going to turn guest i think there may half dozen issues that the court will explore. Address thisy question of corporate exercising religion. The history of exercising religion is deeply tied to corporations. , the closely Held Corporation can engage in exercising religion, what does that mean for an incorporated culture delhi incorporated kosher deli . One can even imagine a court. Andate a pork mandate i dont think any corporation can exercise religion as several steps too far. I think the case is going to really come down to the religious freedom restoration act. There are two components to the scrutiny test. First is the governments obligation to show the hhs mandate. Is to show the hhs mandate as a least restrictive means. Host explain where that test came from for those that arent familiar with it. Guest this is a strict scrutiny test you see under various constitutional doctrines. It was actually the test under the free exercise clause from the 60s up until the 1990s when the Supreme Court called division v smith, that is no longer under the exercise clause. Unanimously nearly the freedom of restoration act, which restored, as a statutory manner, the standard that had applied previous to the smith decision as a constitutional manner under the free exercise clause an. To show the mandate advances a compelling governmental interest. Thatecond is to show through the least restrictive means. I think it is easy for the challengers of the mandate to say that the government did provide this accommodation to religious nonprofits that you say is less restrictive means. Why not also revive that to us . Also provide that to us . Host can you talk about the religious freedom restoration act, the history of it, and how it is being used in this case. Freedom the religious freedom of expiration act religious freedom restoration act, some people are wondering why you are bringing in principles of the free exercise clause. With what congress is intending is to try to codify and restore the free exercise principles prior to the Supreme Court case. When you look to those free exercise principles, never more than 200 years since the ratification of the free exercise clause has a secular commercial enterprise been given free exercise and protection in the same way individuals. Even if hobby lobby and the companies that are bringing this particular claim, even if they can bring their claim they havent been able to identify a single case in our nations history. Commercial enterprise can use the religious freedom exploration act freedom restoration act you might want to give a call because he is probably arguing the case in two hours. Host before we get too far into talk about who you groups are and what they do. What is the Constitutional Accountability Center . Guest we are a nonprofit, Nonpartisan Center focused on looking at the constitutions and usingistory arguments rooted in the constitution to further the progress of promise of our founding documents. We filed a brief on this particular case. We often filed briefs on Supreme Court and lower federal court appeals. Guest the ethics and policy center is a d. C. Think tank dedicated to applying the judeochristian moral public policies. Specifically that corporations under limited circumstances are indeed capable of exercising religion. I would say in response to elizabeths last point, what is unprecedented is the intrusion religious liberty of corporations, the effort by to use employers as a means of advancing their particular objective. Elizabeth failed to mention one of the three companies that his brain these challenges. The Third Company is a Company Called martel, a forprofit christian bookseller. How could it be that a company like mardel would not have the religious rights of a nonreligious bookseller . They are operating identically but one loses religious protections because it is incorporated as a nonprofit instead of a forprofit. There were five justices in the case. They recognized the incorporated Grocery Store indeed had religious liberty rights under the free exercise clause. Host we talked a bit about the contraceptive coverage in the final rule from health and Human Services on the Affordable Care act. Just to bring everybody on the same page, we will show you a bit of information of what it requires. It requires Insurance Plans to cover contraceptives with no copayment, coinsurance, or did dr. Bos. These institutions such as churches, synagogues, and mosques would be exempt. That is the heart of the age age rule on contraceptive coverage. H rule on hunter rule oncountry hh contraceptive coverage. If you are outside the u. S. , 2025853883. We will start with felix calling in from carolina on the line for democrats. Caller how are you on this beautiful morning . Host excellence, go ahead. Vietnami am a disabled federate them vietnam veteran. 1990sd to the early case where Justice Scalia wrote thats native americans do not have a personal individual religious right to partake in ceremonial peyote. Clause i christians seem to pick and choose religious beliefs of the bible. They go home to a disobedient wife and children and dont stone them to death but they hate christians but they hate homosexuals in the morning. I preach thego gospel. Sometimes i even use words. Toocrats utilize capitalism their advantage. Simply dont patronize their businesses and go to democratic businesses. Several comments there from felix. Your thoughts on any one of them . Atst i think when you look the constitutions protection of religious freak exercise, it was intended to protect the vibrant pluralistic religious society we live in. People will have different views and religious beliefs. The caller is talking about the president that is against hobby lobby. I think there is a plethora of case law to choose from that shows that the claim being wouldt by hobby lobby fail before the court. I think it will be interesting to see the way the justices address those previous precedents. I think the government did a great job. There will be a strong argument that our constitutional principles established precedents going back to the 1990s. It goes back long before that and really supports the governments position in this case. Guest the color referred to this decision by Justice Scalia, in step the smith case 1990. That was an interpretation of the free exercise clause. The charge that the caller is picking the charge the caller made that people are picking and choosing among religions is unfair. After the religious freedom restoration act was enacted Justice Scalia was part of the unanimous majority, holding that the minority religious claim had a right under the freedom restoration act. The difference between 1990 and now is the road the existence of the freedom of religion restoration act. James is from tennessee. The morning, you are on. I am a veteran like that other guy that was on a minute ago. We fought to protect the which is freedom of religion and right to bear arms. There was a republican that got on there it a while back those talking about these muslims in america that was traced back to that they werens involved in fire bombings, murder, and kidnapping. Im a christian down here in cap down here in tennessee. If anybody comes in here, they are a dead duck. They will be leaving in a body bag. On, we wantl move to stay on the subject of the hobby lobby case. I want to read a piece that you did for cnn. You talked about this case being a roadblock to the Affordable Care act and was almost more problematic than the problems associated with the Health Exchange website rollout. Why do you think that . I think the Affordable Care act has had a lot of flack lately. I think this adds to the theative, which i think administration is probably not incredibly excited about. Just as the Affordable Care act got a victory the last time it came up in the Supreme Court, i think it should get another victory. I think that would be a welcome win for the administration, just as we are seeing an uptick in for people who will successfully sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care act. A lot of people are getting access to quality Affordable Care they never got before. I think that is incredibly important. If theres one thing that comes out of this case, i think there has been an increased awareness for the great Preventative Health coverage that was provided for women under the Affordable Care act. A lot of preventative screening and counseling for women that have come under the Affordable Care act is one of the great benefits of the law. Host who will be the key voices here you go voices here . Justice kennedy is often a swing vote in cases like this. I will also be interested in justice breyer, justice kagan, justice kagan. It will be interesting to see if they try to craft a narrower approach. On this question of obamacare more broadly. I want to say here that the narrative of the failure of obamacare is the reality. Matter after matter the administration offered waivers and exemptions. I think it is very striking that wonte set of folks who get the benefit of an exemption is those that have religious complying with the hh a mandate. It says something about the way in which obamacare is being rolled out. This maybe you can take email question guest my understanding is that groupuise the Insurance Plan did provide coverage for these forms of Birth Control and when hobby lobby then reviewed its plan after the passage of the Affordable Care act today, they discovered this act and try to not encourage those forms of Birth Control. The law actually allows Companies Like hobby lobby to avoid providing coverage for these forms of challenge contraception the law does not require coverage of these forms of contraception. Ant it requires is if employer offers a Group Sponsored health plan then it must meet must meet certain minimum requirements and federal law, which cover many different aspects of Health Insurance plans. If hobby lobby chose not to offer a Group Sponsored Insurance Plan it could avoid covering these particular forms of Birth Control and perhaps a Party Employee compensation package to offset the loss of the approved Health Insurance plan, and then they would just pay tax instead of meeting these contraception requirements. That gets us into situations court upheld paying Social Security taxes against a religious objection. I think that puts us squarely into the realm of constitutionality. The constitutional account Ability Center and Public Policy center. Perhaps you can take this question from jan in wisconsin, who writes the situation if hobby lobby prevails will be exactly as it was before the hhs mandate. An employee is entirely free to obtain contraceptives as they see fit. I want to emphasize that no one questions the Obama Administration does not dispute hobby lobbys and its owners sincere religious beliefs against a particular subset of socalled contraceptives that operate in and an embraer operate in an embryo killing manner. Nobody spews that hobby lobby has religious objection here. The problem any player recognizes is you are in a competitive market for employees and employers make the the session to offer Health Premium insurance. The pressure hobby lobby faces is ample literature through the threshold issues under the freedom restoration act. Host let me talk about those fines. Waiting in westwood, new jersey on our line for republicans. Good morning, youre on with ed whelan and elizabeth wyder. Good morning. I find callers are just as interesting as the guests. Of i dont i dont want anybody placed in a body bag. I go back to a commitment, love your neighbor as yourself. I have in my hand a copy of the declaration of independence. This was unanimous. The rights which were given to of 1776mously on july 4 have now been taken away. I think president obama could restore them by an executive order. I doubt he is going to do that. The right to life was taken away by the congress, which should have been supporting us, in rovers his weight. Clearly unconstitutional. The Affordable Care act is clearly unconstitutional. Persony the right of a or citizen to have a doctor or hospital of their choice. They gave it to the noncaring government who only wants power, power, power and more power. Harry reid and the senate, they took away the pursuit of happiness because they know what will make us happy. And what will make us happy, in their opinion, is certainly what would you try to say . They refuse to consider all the bills passed by the house of representatives that would give us happiness, that would give us jobs. Host we are going to let elizabeth jump in and offer her views. Guest i love the colors enthusiasm for the declaration of independence. I disagree with a lot of the conclusions he draws i share that enthusiasm. I think it is important to think just at it is not what we havent been talking about are more than the 13,000 employees of hobby lobby across the country who are going to be by going to be affected what the companies trying to do in this case. I think when the justices hear this case we will hear all the uncomfortable with the idea that individual owners of a company can impose their religious belief on employees that were not hired on the base of religion. Hobby lobby does not higher on the basis of religion. The employees are not required to share their religious beliefs to the individual owners of the company. Are statutorily granted the rights to have these particular covert forms of health care, they should not be sacrificed so there could be the fullest effectuation of the religious beliefs of the individuals involved in hobby lobby. There was a case called United States versus lee in which the court said that when you voluntarily enter the world of the limits that one individual might take on his or her conduct as a result of their faith cannot be imposed upon their employees. I think that is something that should really come into play when we are talking about this case. The libertyst about of the green family that owns hobby farm hobby lobby. We are talking about choices of the employees and their families. Pictures of the Supreme Court. Protesters are there. I saw you jotting down some notes. There are tens of millions of employees whose employers are exempt from the hhs mandate in virtue of the so far grandfather plan exemption. The government does not care but they are getting these supposedly necessary benefits from their employers and yet it is eager to compel those employers with religious objections to provide this coverage to the much much smaller infinitesimally smaller amount of employees they have. This is not a matter of imposing religious beliefs. Hobby lobby and its overtures have against the government, individuals remain entirely free to obtain contraception as they see fit. The governments obligation will fund the least restrictive means there are plenty of ways the government can provide contraceptive coverage to these employees. Entioned before the calm the accommodation arrangement. We are not talking about rights here. We are talking about a that tries toer elevate to the highest level, something that government never saw fit to put into the obama care legislation. There simply is not a compelling interest in requiring hobby lobby to provide benefits when all of these employers with their millions of employees dont have to have the secular exemption. That goes back to the rf ra . Guest it goes back to the religious freedom restoration act. Host on twitter a question from an email guest a think what we are talking about here is health care and public health. The experts that congress specifically tasked with coming recommendations ed talks about how these forms of contraception were not specifically enumerated in the Affordable Care act. That is not the way congress legislates when they talk about coverage for vaccinations. Expertsked the medical with coming up with what vaccinations should be covered through regulations. I think most of us are pretty please with that as we dont think of congress as being a medical expert freedom medical expert. Provisions it sending full range was important a full range of contraception be covered here. I think most americans are into it for common sense. Contraception to use are largely governed by cost. Some of the safest and most effective forms of , areaception, like an iud also the most expensive. That decision of what form of fda approved contraception is really a decision made between a woman and her doctor. The link is so indirect to the individuals who own the corporation and to our sponsoring the group Insurance Plan, administered by a third. Arty maybe there will be a choice made by a woman and her doctor to use one of these challenged forms of contraception. Attenuatedt link is as a substantial burden under the court case law. David green quoted michael waiting in arkansas on our line for independents. I am a disabled veteran, which has nothing to do with what i am going to say. I live in the state of arkansas. Let me tell you what happens when religious believes decide loss. Under Mike Huckabee we had a law called a blue law. Whether you are religious or not you are not allowed to purchase any item, medicine, toilet paper , anything on sunday. They didnt believe in doing anything on the holy day. Under xsed that law baptist preacher Mike Huckabee. Day you are not allowed to buy any alcoholic beverage on sunday. Michael seems to be concerned about the role religion plays in his choices. That is obviously the broader question of what role these informed fees play and Public Policy. A lot of people have different views. Address the to burden on hobby lobby that is supposedly attenuated. Hobby lobby is forced to pay for this. If you want to make it so it is attenuated, dont make hobby lobby pay for it. Never before has the government sed implicitly in wrongful conduct. On the review board that involves a person objecting to manufacturing carets to be put on takes. Put on tanks. His objection was summoned to make the decision to use the tanks and conflict. No one said that is to attenuated. He is objecting to what he was forced to do. The court said it was not the business of the courts to that religious judgment. It is not the right of the course of the courts to secondguess hobby lobby and moral complicity. Host lets go to gabriella in florida on our line for democrats. Youre on the washington journal. Lord, imank the waiting for the rapture is what i am waiting for. I am a christian democrat. World i dont think subjects like this would even come up. When you have people saying in a sundayhat school story or people killing other people for reasons i think if jesus was in the world right now he wouldnt the running after women who made a mistake, even if that would be the case. I dont think he would be running after those people. I think he would be upset at the hierarchy of a country that is very sad. Im a true blooded american. I believe the rapture is coming and i believe that people need to get right with god. We will host we will stay in california. Donnas on our line. Is on our line. Caller i wish people would get it through their heads that the bible is not a religious book. People have taken the bible and take in and turned it into the rule of the people. The word of god is meant for only one group of people, and that is the hebrew israelites, the black, spanish, and native American Indians in this country. But the White Supremacy and White Supremacists have taken the bible and turned it into a thegious type thing when bible was not meant to be for religion. It was meant for a group of people to take this bible, which is the instructions of how to live on this earth, and governed this world. The hebrew israelites were to want to talk about the implications of what could happen depending on the decision on this case. Is the Affordable Care act under threat here . A previous correspondent said no, the actual still stand even if the justices side with hobby lobby. Guest exactly right. Not only was the internal not only with the Affordable Care act, this particular provision would just mean that the companies would get an exemption from having to comply with it. The actual integrity of the provision and act are not in question here. I want to get back to that quote you mentioned from mr. Green. He is wrong about that. The court has said that when you choose toe and exercise a business in the commercial realm, which these Business Owners have chosen to do, even the christian bookstore is a commercial incorporated enterprise. When you choose to do that you are put to these choices. The court is upheld against religious challenge, not questioning the sincerely held religious beliefs. They upheld latest challenge upheld religious challenge. Sometimes the commercial Business Owners are put to that choice and the court said they have to comply with generally applicable laws that often work to the Publics Health and benefit. If hobby lobby were to get this case we could see an under binding of principle. Undermining of principle. And also in antidiscrimination principles when it comes to treating people of all colors equally in the treatment of gays and lesbians. Host on our twitter page ed whelan, we will let you jump in. Of course there are federal laws that will survive the scrutiny test. Of i think every example in elizabeths a of horribles would survive. I did not meet over speak there. The courthas has never said that under the freedom of restoration act if you are in business you lose all right. That is a remarkable proposition. Imagine the operator of the kosher deli and whether that makes sense in that context. Theirk people are letting biases on a particular substantive issue here work their view on the underlying legislative key issue. Yes, Social Security taxes can be imposed to satisfy the scrutiny tax scrutiny test. The court recognized a unique interest there and a comprehensive system. That everyot mean claim a business make loses. Host on our twitter page a few minutes left with ed whelan and Elizabeth White re Elizabeth Wydra. Oral arguments are being heard. Are both of you planning to attend the arguments today . Guest im happy to review the transcript later and not fight the crowds. Guest im going to over when this is done. It should be great. Host we are showing our audience some of the crowds there. Down at theng Supreme Court at this hour. Lets go to ron waiting on the onnes from Hudson New York our line for independents. Good morning. Morning. Ood i have a multipart question. I hope you give me a chance to get it all out, it works together. First of all the constitution. Oes not grant us any rights in the declaration us as we were endowed by our creator with rights such as free street should free speech, freedom of religion. The constitution says that the government may not take away those rights but rights existed before the government even existed. First part of the question is aw do you tell what Religion Corporation has seattle isnt the religion of the ceo or the stockholder vote required or can the president of the corporation decide what religion is of the corporation . If i am working for that corporation and i have a different religion and the government exempts the corporation from a particular law, isnt the government establishing a religion which is prohibited by the constitution . Issuey, wasnt this already decided when the supreme they have been using it for thousands of years, the native americans couldnt use peyote in their religious ceremonies because it was late it was illegal. Have three questions. What police does cbs have when it what belief does cbs have what it decides not to what belief does cvs have when it decides not to sell tobacco . It is a matter of addressing who under state law decides what policies are. Recognizeortant to that it will be extremely rare. It will be extremely rare for a corporation to set forth and that here to a policy of religious beliefs. Ity ought to be respective. Is not a matter of establishing religion. Abilityployees have the they had before to obtain contraceptives by whatever means they want. Concerning theon 1990 case, the freedom restoration act statutorily restored the standard that had been employed that had been abandoned in the smith case. We saw a case that went the opposite way of division v smith under the restoration act. Bys case was not decided division v smith. I think the caller brings up some interesting points. When you think about what religion what religion the corporation has. An artificial corporate entity does not have religion in the way that the founders understood religious liberty at the time the bill of rights were drafted. A corporation cannot pray. I have never seen exxon mobil in the pew next to me in church on sunday. Leaves into one of the of the individuals behind the corporations . The artificial corporate entity is a separate legal being from the individual investors who own it. By trying to blur that distinction, there are a lot of unintended, but definitely very worrisome consequences for basic rinse bowls of Corporate Law in principles of Corporate Law in this country. Willnk the justices thely be concerned with undermining of fundamental principles of Corporate Law that hobby lobby is pushing in this case. Host where do big business groups stand on this case . Big businesses do not exercise religion. Hobby lobby does. The administration recognizes that there is nothing about the corporate for him that makes makes a business incapable of exercising a religion. Is a case from a couple weeks ago from the Fourth Circuit that involved whether a corporation can have a racial identity. , yes, a corporation can have a racial identity. I think it is a little odd that folks would recognize that corporations can have racial , that somehow when they are implementing religious beliefs of their owners, they cannot possibly have religious beliefs. Host did you want a Quick Response . Guest the fact that some Incorporated Entities like churches and synagogues get protection, they have got protection since the time of the founding. The founders distinguished between ecclesiastical corporations and corporations. I dont think anyone thinks that walmart is the same thing as a church or synagogue. We have a couple minutes. Carol is waiting in illinois on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. It seems to me that hobby lobby s position is inconsistent because they sell a lot of products from china. China has a one child policy. We all know that there are lots of abortions in china. It seems to me that at hobby lobby can make money by selling things from china, which their practices and china should be against their religion, that is ok because they make money. But if it might cost them money by providing Birth Control coverage for their employees, well then it is against their religion. Guest i think there is confusion there. It is not up to the u. S. Government to tell hobby lobby what its religious belief should be. , under the governments own arguments, hobby lobby is costing itself money or is at best neutral and not providing contraceptive coverage. This is not a matter of hobby lobby saving money. It is not a matter of the government having any right to tell hobby lobby that its religious beliefs are not coherent because it is doing x in one place. Host fort lauderdale, florida. Republican line. Caller good morning. I have a question. If hobby lobby is mandated to provide contraception, which i believe is the morningafter pill which is abortion, would toy be able to hire people they woulder that not have the Services Provided . I am a christian. I want to follow gods rules. How can the government tell me to go against gods law . I would like to know the answer to that question. Guest i think that the caller raises an interesting question. I would clarify that the law does not mandate hobby lobby to provide this form of contraception. Offer the not want to full range of fda approved contraception coverage as a part of theother parts Affordable Care act, they do not have to do that, the law does not require them. I think the larger question that the caller raises is can a commercial enterprise hire people based on them sharing religious beliefs . The answer is no. Hobby lobby does not profess to be able to hire people, only people who share religious beliefs. They do not hire on the basis of religion. I think that is why it is particularly troublesome that essentially what theyre trying to do is impose religious beliefs on people who might have very different religious beliefs. The caller expresses an admirable strength of conscience. There are many people in the United States that have similar strong feelings of conscience that might differ from the owners of hobby lobby in the protection of religious liberty that goes both ways. For the individuals, in their personal capacities, who own hobby lobby, and those who work there. Religious liberties are a right against government, not a right against other individuals. Employees remain entirely free to obtain contraceptives. The government has plenty of other ways of providing contraceptive coverage to them. There is no reason for hobby lobby to be the vehicle for their agenda. Host were showing a live shot of the Supreme Court. People are walking up the steps of the Supreme Court to watch the arguments today. Nancy is waiting in overton, texas. Independent line. Caller good morning. Dont think this is about religion, i think this is about the government taking more money out of our pockets to pay for people who dont want to work, for drug addicts. I see it every day. In the last 15 years that i have tried to hire people, they used to be good. Now they are all on disability and they have turned into meth heads, crack heads, coke heads. Host did you want to respond to the Business Owner . Guest it is too early in the morning for me for meth and crack heads. When we are talking about employers, we are talking about a commercial enterprise. Has held before, when a person voluntarily chooses to operate their , whichs as a corporation the owners of the businesses did in this case, then they have legaln to take on the statutory schemes that cover corporations govern corporations and there are certain rights that are different than those of individuals. The owners of hobby lobby are trying to have their cake and eat it too by having the advantages of the corporate form, but avoid the perceived difference disadvantages. Guest i do think that is what is going on. I would go back to the simple example of and incorporated jewish deli. Once a jewish deli incorporates, it has no religious liberty rights. That position is not reconcilable with the clear set text of the religious liberation act. Laws that will belon survive scrutiny. To the strict scrutiny test, the government cannot show that there are not less restrictive means. They cannot show that this that there are millions of employees subject to exemptions. Host that is all the time we have with ed whelan and elizabeth from the Constitutional Accountability Center. We appreciate you joining us. Up next, we will be talking with d. C. Lobbying on firms representing the russian government and the tensions over the ukraine. President obama plans to ask balless to end the collection and storage of phone records by the National Security agency, but allow the government to access the metadata when needed, according to a Senior Administration official. The nsaress approves, would stop collecting metadata, instead the government would have to get permission through the Foreign Intelligence Survey shunts surveillance court. U. S. Officials have made their case to the vatican for pope francis to visit the u. S. Next year. This message needs to be heard, they say. The governor of pennsylvania and philadelphia mayor made their pitch today at the vatican. The Pontifical Council is helping to organize the september 22 through 27th meeting. Francis had made family issues a top priority of his pontificate. No confirmation of his participation is expected before next year. Finally, experts hailing the move on more than 30 countries attending a Nuclear Summit in the netherlands. Experts say it is the most significant achievement of the meeting turning nuclear guidelines into laws. I do recognize that xenophobia exists. Attitudea negative toward a community i am absolutely against that. It is part of xenophobia. Judeophobia, christianphobia, whatever it is. Lobby, iranian lobby has turned it into a position. They have been accused of islamphobia. This is what the National Socialists would have accused anyone against their policy of in germany. This has become very dangerous. U. S. Policy in the middle east. Saturday night at 10 00 eastern on book tv. On april 6, more discussion on the middle east with bing west. Live, indepth, starting at noon eastern. Book tv, every weekend on cspan 2. Washington journal continues. Host Kevin Bogardus covers lobbying issues for the hill newspaper. With all of the International Controversy on the russian lookingin crimea, he is at what it means for the c suite. Lobbyists include this huge publicrelations firm named ketchum. Russia also has some lobbying representation. Another firm has a subcontract to represent the Russian Federation. Ketchum represents the big state owned oil and gas company in russia. They have another subcontractor as well. How they are negotiating the sanctions is they have not really been sanctioned themselves, yet. The Obama Administration has started out with these small round of sanctions, targeting individuals and smaller companies, not necessarily sanctioning the whole russian government yet. Himhat ever happens, catch lobby shopsnd the will have something to worry about. They could negotiate and they could find a way to represent russia if the russian government ends up getting sanctioned itself. You could seek a license from the Treasury Department from the office of foreign control foreign asset control. It is a very powerful office that no one hears about too much. It is responsible for enforcing u. S. Sanctions of all kinds. Host how lucrative are these contracts . What do these groups do in the United States for the russian government . Guest ketchum handles pr. That is how they pitch themselves. An economicemselves development firm. They try to polish up the image of russia through Media Relations action on social media, using twitter, facebook, and so on. It is pretty lucrative. They have had the contract for eight years. Time invery long washington lobbying perspective. They have earned more than 26 billion over the past eight 2006. Starting in subcontractor has been around since 2010 or so. Got 1. 4 million so far from russia. The other subcontractor is more responsible for contacting lawmakers and the more traditional lobbying that people think of. The lobbyists on capitol hill. That is their role. Host if you want to talk to Kevin Bogardus, give us a call. Democrats, 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Independents, 202 5853882. Outside the u. S. , 202 5853883. You can also check out his story on thehill. Com . Fromhas been the response these companies as tensions have escalated over the recent weeks and months in ukraine and crimea . Theyre looking at other lobby firms who have had to deal with controversy. They are trying to put their head down and keep a low profile. Recentlyomething i was that was recently filed by ketchum, their twitter account from the russian government. Does notind of see, it have much to do with the crisis in ukraine or crimea. I will read a few for people. Ships, trains, and autos are taking over florida with more than 1 million invested. Why does this russian shipping expert believes that this is the most promising type of fuel . Read about how kos asked him will demonstrate the benefits of natural gas vehicles when it hosts the world expert kazakhstan will demonstrate the benefits of natural gas vehicles when it hosts the world expo. Guest they do not necessarily want to deal with what is going on in ukraine. They want to keep boosting the image of russia in general. Host what has been the response to your story . Did they give you a statement . Guest they did for the first story edited. I did. It was a standard statement. We are sticking with russia. We arethey noted not advising the Russian Federation on foreign policy, including the Current Situation in ukraine. They continue to focus on supporting Economic Development and investment in the country. That is what their stance has been. We have nothing to do with the foreign policy. We did not tell him to invade or not invade crimea. We have nothing to do with what is going on. It is trying to distance themselves. Even when this happens, firms can get caught up in the swirl of controversy for foreign clients. I have heard privately from pr peoplele in o said, i cannot believe people are representing putin here in the United States, considering what is going on. Host i wanted to get into some of the history of this. First, lets take some calls. William in indianapolis. On our independents line. Caller yes, good morning. Quick theyring how could shake down the Shell Companies . Theyre going after individuals where the individuals can change the names as easy as companies in the ukraine. They cannot find the guys who are tearing down target and messing with the internet. It is so easy. They are not going to find these guys. The only one they could get is the guy who owns the brooklyn nets. Firms, their duty is to keep the money flowing. In order to do that, they have to change identities for the russian highrollers, oligarchy. Is impossible for the u. S. Theyre one step ahead, they have been doing this for decades ever since the old soviet union. Host lobbying firms do they do some of the things that the color is describing . Caller is describing . Guest they can certainly advise. The caller has a good point. There was an instance. I am trying to look it up. Small rounds of targeted sanctions have gone after russian billionaires and vast companies. One man got wind of the sanctions that were going to go after him and he ended up selling his shares and a Commodity Trading firm, this huge Commodities Trading Firm that has a lot of ties everywhere. He was able to escape the sanctions. Always advise they will try to push against any harmful press or action against foreign clients. Leading up over this past year there were lobbyists for the European Center for modern ukraine, which is basically a Nonprofit Group based in brussels linked to the ukrainian president , the prior ukrainian president who has since fled kiev. They were pushing back against several nonbinding resolutions that were asking ukraine or the Ukrainian Government to release an opposition leader. Of concept same kind of going against u. S. Sanctions. There are plenty of instances where there might not be sanctions happening at the time, but your time is a lobby firm is to create the environment where they do not end up taking place. One great example is right after that aboutme out 1519 of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian or had Saudi Arabian passports. Later, they had a contract with a pr firm. They ended up spending 15 million. The Saudi Arabian government. It was a radio ad campaign, tv ads, they were involved in saying that saudi arabia has always been a great u. S. Ally. That perception campaign helped mood where u. S. Sanctions and saudi arabia would not take old even though they had links to terrorist attacks. Host if there are sanctions that are put in place that end up impacting some of the firms, what are the penalties associated with doing some of these work for this company . How much could this cost them . Guest when you think about ketchum and how much they have made from the contract, you have to think that was factored in the decision to stay with russia. It has spent about 26 million. They make about 2 million every six months. They can no longer represent russia, it is a decent chunk of change that they would no longer have. Like i said earlier, i think they could seek a license to keep the contract and it would be very interesting. Host that would allow them to keep working despite sanctions. Guest there is no guarantee they would get the license either. It is very delicate and very hard to come by. I was able to talk to someone who has one of these licenses to do legal work for sudan. He got accused of lobbying for sudan by congressman frank wolf 2011, 2012. Very murky process. It is unclear if ketchum will be able to get it to influence the american public. Host anthony in new jersey. Democrat line. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. I am 60 years old. I grew up with the fear of the soviet union. Russia lost 20 Million People and world war ii. Perhaps they are a little bit hair annoyed about having made paranoid about having nato so close. Is there any difference about the u. S. Being in Guantanamo Bay than the russia thing in the blacks he . Black sea . Putin is a very stern nationalist in the old communist line. Perhaps he is just worried that his country is going to become nonexistent down the road or irrelevant, at best. Up livingony brings through the cold war. Where there lobbying groups doing lobbying work for russia during the height of the cold war . Guest not to the same degree, i would say. I looked through records and there was some representation and started to take off more and more as the soviet union crumbled, starting in the early 1990s on. Tatian sh sent representation on k street grew with the catch him contract ketchum contract. That is when their influence presents to go took old. Hold. Host lets go to miriam in virginia. Democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Am i on . Host go ahead. Caller i read a political article a couple of weeks ago about russia in 2012 and that the wealthy there to cut 60 million to buy yachts and places in europe and the United States. With everything being global, all our companies being multinational, how do we now say we have sovereignty, when everybodys interest is money . How do we protect the United States . Our own interests for the people here, not the wealthy who are all interconnected globally, but for what is going on for the American People here. We can say patriotism, we can say all these words, but if we thely are connected or wealthy are connected globally, how do we have sovereignty anymore . That is my question. Thank you. Host a little outside the lobbying. Any thoughts . Guest i can drag it back in a little bit. You are seeing the sanctions are targeted on is because essentially what is going on is u. S. Business groups have a lot of Energy Interest and other interests in russia. There is so much more trade that is going on between russia and the United States than there was in the cold war. They have made it clear that these sanctions is start off should start off small if at all. That fits into the interconnect did global place interconnected global place than we were 30 years ago. We will see if the sanctions expand. There is a feeling they will. That is not great news for russia. It is no longer a g8. It is a g7 this week. It is a little murky on what happened there. It seems that more repercussions are happening for russia as we go forward. As you see the sanctions expand, you will see more u. S. Businesses get affected by these penalties. Viewers ofowed our this story this morning. It is the lead story in todays wall street journal. We are talking with Kevin Bogardus of the hill newspaper. He specializes in lobbying. We will go to william and joplin, missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. I hear about mccain going over there, newman. I have a friend whose parents live there. American mercenaries in that group. Saying that kerry the government better not do nothing to the peaceful , which makes him the highestpaid lyre in america because a month ago there were peaceful protests around the white house in 100 people were arrested. People are begging to back to protect them from the government and now this morning, the head of the neonazi, they killed them. Host all right, william. U. S. Leaders going overseas and international pressure. Can you talk about the role of members of congress when it comes to these lobbying contracts for Foreign Countries and what kind of pressure they can put on the companies themselves when we get into a tense relationship with another country . Lobbyists for foreign governments are always under pressure trying to seek out who can protect the interest of their clients. That could be some member of congress who is either for a use sanction ease sanctions or penalties. A classic example is egypt canceled its contract or three lobby firms decided to part way with egypt during the midst of the arab spring. After and a half later, the aid got pared down to egypt, they hired another huge lobbying firm who is trying to readjust the perception of egypt and hopefully get that u. S. Foreign aid flowing. Host firms move out of the lucrative contract, there are firms ready to movein . Guest sometimes happens very quick. It seems that ecuador parted ways with the huge lobby firm and about a month later another one was with them. This was during the controversy about the nsa leaker Edward Snowden, who might have been seeking asylum in ecuador. He has ended up in russia. It is hard to keep track of all of these firms and what theyre doing and why they are doing it at the time. They tryingcenes, to affect u. S. Policy. Host we have a couple more minutes with Kevin Bogardus. We will go to chris in new haven, connecticut. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Calls. Ou for taking my ,evin, when i hear your name all of a sudden i hear the bells of saint mary and i see Ingrid Bergman and bing crosby and that was a really good example of great public relations. I just cant understand this firm that is lobbying for the what has beenst done to the ukrainian people. Starting with chernobyl. This terrible accident. They went on to poison the ukrainian president. [indiscernible] host we are losing you a little bit. I want to give Kevin Bogardus a chance to jump in. Interesting that there has been not a pleasant history between russia and the ukraine. It is a difficult choice that these firms make. It is always a question between the option of choosing potentially controversial ,oreign client, such as russia against the income they can bring in total which is typically millions of dollars. Foreign government contracts for k street are some of the most lucrative, if not the most lucrative agreements a loft Lobbyist Firm can sign up for. Host huntington, new york. Independent line. Caller thanks for taking my call. Lobbyists usually affect elections, i think. Million togive 1 someone who lost an election five years ago and doing much to get elections going this year. The election in crimea was televised. It seemed perfectly legal. Crimea was always an autonomous state with its own prime minister. What is wrong with elections . Host anything you want to pick up on a caller . Guest i dont think there is anything wrong with that election. People of questions the results. It happened for a quickly after an armed incursion into the country. You have to wonder how the population was feeling at the time. I still think this is shaking out. It will be something president obama will have to deal with for the rest of his second term. The story is definitely not over. Tweet. How closely are these lobbying firms watching tweets and statements from numbers of congress as they are looking at these contracts they have . Are good, there watching them very closely. To get a real good idea of how members of congress are feeling or doing from their twitter accounts. Their quotes in print as well. That is something the people and influence are always keeping a close eye on. It will help them figure out which way lawmakers swinging and then they can figure out whether they need to get the lawmaker to swing back the other way. Host that was senator dan coots of indiana. One more call. John is in connecticut on our line for independents. Guestcaller good morning. I am curious about your thoughts about obama and the government trying to defund the military in certain aspects. Theyre worried about the obamacare situation, the employment situation. Putines anyone think that is going to take obama or john kerry seriously when they cant even get their own house in order . The American People are tired of war situations anywhere in the world. And they want to give all these funds to countries. Lets concentrate on home. Patent into international affairs. But not try to flex muscle that obama does not have. You know what i mean . I am curious how he is supposed to fix something across the ocean when he can fix things in d. C. Host that comment. Patent into what is happening at home. How does k street view comments like that . Aret i think lobbyists also trying to figure out what angle they can pursue for their clients. When it comes to foreign clients , they try to see how they can their foreign clients interest with the United States to try to match them up. Basically, my foreign client is on the same page as the United States. They do not have separate interests. They can be a great partner to america. One k street executive i talked said, weese stories dont take on a client unless they seem to have good relationships with the state department. Any kind of road government rogue government is not going to get signed up by a lobby firm. Kevin bogardus of the hill newspaper. You can follow him on twitter or see his stories that thehill. Com. We appreciate you coming on this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Host we will be right back to open up the funds free to ask questions. , do you viewers earlier want more or less religion in public life . We will be right back. I do recognize that islamphobia exists. It is an irrational fear of islam. I am absolutely against it. It is part of xenophobia. It is nothing more than xenophobia versus one group. Any other foreign phobia. It is part of it. What is happening is that the islamist lobby, the brotherhood lobby, they have hijacked the notion and made it into a weapon. Anybody who is criticizing a policy issue that has nothing to , they have been accused of islamphobia and this is close to what the natural nationals socialists in germany would have accused anyone who is against their policy in germany. At the international level, this has become very dangerous. Saturday night at 10 00 eastern and sunday night at 9 00 on book tv. On april 6, more discussion on the middle east with bing west. Live in depth starting at noon eastern. Book tv, every weekend on cspan 2. Washington journal continues. Host we are back this morning on the washington journal. We are asking our viewers the same question we ask that the top of the show. Should the be more or less religion in public life . That is a shot of the Supreme Court and the crowds outside the Supreme Court, where Supreme Court justices will be hearing arguments in the hobby lobby case. You can talk about that case over the course of the show. We are taking your thoughts. You could also answer the question for us, should the be more or less religion in public life . Here is the lead editorial in todays Washington Post. That is the Editorial Board of the Washington Post. We are showing you protesters outside of the Supreme Court. We are opening up our phones to you. Until the end of the show. The phone lines on the democrats, 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Ndependents, 202 5853882 outside the u. S. , 202 5853883. We will start with faye from kentucky on our line for independents. Caller good morning. I am a christian. I want to seeat everyone go to heaven, ok . But i think that we can keep, you know, keep our views quieter. The lesbianseciate gays being so open about everything. They should be kept more personal. I think you can live a more private life. I dont have to be exposed to all of this other stuff like how they want to flaunt it. We need to get back to what really matters. A tweet from senator roy blunt. We will go to bobby in grove town, georgia. Independents line. You will check hasughout history, religion never done anything but make things worse and created problems. People need to mind their own business. But they cannot do that. They have to get into everybody elses business. I have my own faith. I am not antireligion. I would not join the church for anything. Thank you. Bobby answering our question. Should there be more or less religion and public life . Our phone lines a rope in. Reading tweets as well. Of the see a live shot Supreme Court there with the snow coming down. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke writes on her twitter page. To bob in bridgewater, massachusetts. Our line for democrats. Caller thank you. Good morning. I think there should be a lot less religion in society. Hateion causes war, causes. It is divisive, submissive, and it is not good at all. All religion, ladies and gentlemen, please remember. It is manmade religion. Religion is a personal, private thing. We need to do away with all religion and society. If we did not have religion and society in the world, there would be a lot less war and hate. It causes war and hate in the christian right are notorious for causing problems. With a hobby lobby situation, no, no business has a right to discriminate against anybody. This is a free market. We all need to learn to get along and keep our personal god to ourselves. Do you want to know something . Nobody knows. From here is a tweet congressman Tim Huelskamp this morning. That is from yesterday. Sorry, not this morning. Lets go to washington on our line for independents. Caller good morning. If they want to take care of , if theyigious zealots want to have their own special rules, if they dont Want Health Care for women, if they dont want contraception for women at their businesses, no viagra either. If you take the erectile dysfunction thing out for the men, i bet they wont mess with the women as much. Thank you. Host we want to read you a couple of other headlines. This story from the Supreme Court. House ethics Panel Releases details of charges against two republican lawmakers. Here is the story from the wall street journal. If you want to read more on that , that is in the wall street journal this morning. Were asking, should there be more or less religion in public life . What are your thoughts on the hobby lobby case . Lucy is in mclean, virginia on the republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I was listening earlier to the. Onversation and host yes. Go ahead. Things that ithe think is wrong with all of this debate about all of this it is not really brought into when they say they are against all forms of contraception and it is part of the war on women. No. The fullst problem is range of the fda forms of contraception. The pill should not be a moral or ethical problem. Also, within that fda approved eds, which to allow contraceptions and the morningafter pill and other things. Abortions are legal, but it gets to be a big problem if you do them after five months. It is a fully formed baby. It is nonspecific in the way the media reports things. Think in terms of religion being more religion in public life, i dont think there should be i think there should be more morality in public life. If we sat down and examined some of these things, people might realize there is a right or wrong. There in, i visited 1989 and they said we all have abortions. They use it as a form of Birth Control. Tweet. E want to read a nancy pelosi on the hobby lobby case. Her twitter page from a few minutes ago. Speaking of house leadership, we want to point out a frontpage story in oa in the Washington Post about eric cantor. A profile piece about a softer pitch. E is trying to remain we have a few minutes left. We want to get in shelley in virginia on our line for independents. Caller hello. Hi. Sometimes i think that religious people are viewed as being able to take their religion off like a coat when they leave the nk people needhik to take a little deeper look at it. It is more akin to taking off your skin. If it is our belief that it is your religion, or do something you live on a daily basis and i dont think it should be trivialized. Nk that it also should be looked at like as long as you are accepting the chosen lifestyle of the gay and le sbians as a choice, we might want to consider our religious choices as being equally as important. That is pretty much all i have to say. Host we have been talking about the Affordable Care act and the hobby lobby case. Here is the front page of the business day section of the New York Times. Talking about the march 31 deadline to sign up for Health Care Coverage under the Affordable Care act. If you want to read more on that story, the New York Times. Lets go to ed in arizona on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller what we need is a lot less religion in society. This hobby lobby, as far as im , he is thethe owner biggest hypocrite going. Most of the stuff that is in those stores is bob from china, imported from china. He supports a communist regime that allows only one child per family. Birth control. Against the Affordable Health care act in this country. Most of the people in that store our women. They just opened the hobby lobby here. Drive 75 miles to go to michaels and tucson. Thank you. Host a couple of stories on the Campaign Front and speculation over 2016. Here is the Washington Times. Two supposedly tenders for the 2016 suppose it contenders for the 2016 election. Speaking at the Global Education conference yesterday. That story is an the Washington Times. They also noted that Texas Governor rick perry will allow another president ial bid. He did not announce any he willtial bid, but keep the option open. He said he will be focused on being as competitive a governor as he can through 2015. Some names who are being watched in the election. Lexington, kentucky. Our line for republicans. Caller good morning. What i wanted to say about hobby lobby and the rest of these companies is that they can do whatever they want as companies. However, if theyre going to violate what our government is setting forward as a standard, then they just dont get any tax breaks, well we impose a tax penalty. They can do whatever they want, but they pay more money for it. We need to stop giving our churches tax breaks and all of these businesses. There was a business in kansas that did not want to serve lgbt folks. That is fine, but they need to get not tax benefits from the government, no federal help, and you pay a higher tax fine. It is very public and Everybody Knows that you are a company that does not support diversity and inclusion in the United States. To me, that seems like a simple solution. Everybody can win. Hobby lobby can do what they want, but they get no federal support and they pay higher taxes. And the story. Story. And host here is a statement from House Speaker john boehner on hobby lobby. That is his statement from yesterday. Lets go to castlewood, virginia on our line for democrats. Caller good morning. Most people dont realize that hobby lobby is not opposed to Birth Control. They provide 16 pills with their insurance. The four pills they have objection to are not Birth Control, they are abortion pills. Including the morningafter pill. I agree with them. There is nothing wrong with Birth Control. They have provided it for years. The only objection i have is to the four pills that are abortion pills. Host that is going to be our last caller. We want to take you live to the house floor. The house is meeting. Morning hour and then. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013]