The uniquely American attributes of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion flexed their muscles Saturday on Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City.
Approximately 10 people stood on the new sidewalk in the 2200 block, holding signs such as "keep your theology off my biology" and "trust women."
Inside the Hobby Lobby store, business as usual continued - employees were at work, customers were finding craft supplies and a few were taking an art class in back.
The creative supply store chain recently learned the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its owners' First Amendment rights to exercise their religious beliefs through their private business.
Local members of the National Organization of Women (NOW) organized Saturday's action because they were displeased with the ruling. A few passing by honked their horns in support of the the group's views.
Others shouted negative comments at the sign holders, who left after about an hour.
In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court recently determined provisions of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to prohibit the government "[from] substantially burden[ing] a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability," unless the government can show that its "burden ... is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest."
But, the court's majority ruled, the federal Health and Human Services department's requirement that for-profit companies' group health plans "furnish "preventive care and screenings' for women without "any cost sharing requirements'" doesn't meet that burden because the government had other options it didn't try.
So, the court said, the government cannot force "closely held corporations" - that is, companies owned by a few individuals - to provide contraceptive health care if that would violate the owners' religious beliefs.
NOW organizers said they were "outraged" at the court's ruling in the case filed by Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby and their owners, David and Barbara Green - a ruling they said favors "corporate personhood of the for-profit company, over the millions of American women's ever-diminishing reproductive rights, as well as over the freedom of religion of all Americans."
No one was available Saturday to comment on the event from either Hobby Lobby or the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, whose lawyers represented the company in the case.
But in materials prepared and released about the case before the court's ruling last week, the company said: "This case is about a compassionate family and their businesses living out their deeply held religious convictions in a way that does not threaten the health and well-being of their employees."
Their lawsuit challenged the requirement that their health care coverage include "four potentially life-terminating drugs and devices" that, the Greens believe, "violate their belief that life begins at conception."
The Associated Press reported the case challenged the drugs "Plan B" and "ella," both considered morning after pills, and two kinds of intrauterine devices, or IUDs.
In a list of frequently asked questions posted on the website, the company noted: "The Greens and their family businesses have no objection to the other 16 FDA-approved contraceptives required by the law that do not interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg. They provide coverage for such contraceptives under their health care plan. Additionally, the four objectionable drugs and devices are widely available and affordable, and employees are free to obtain them."
The company said it doesn't deprive its women employees of health care.
"Just the opposite: the Greens and their family businesses, including Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., offer their employees - nearly 70 percent of whom are women - a robust benefit plan that includes coverage for preventive care and almost all of the contraceptives required under the Affordable Care Act," the website said.
"That plan includes an on-site clinic with no co-pay at Hobby Lobby headquarters, and all full-time employees are eligible to enroll in a generous benefit plan: including medical, dental, prescription drugs, along with long-term disability and life insurance and a 401(k) plan with a generous company match."