POSTED: Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 6:44pm
UPDATED: Friday, September 21, 2012 - 2:07pm
Tyler, TX — Hobby Lobby was founded in Oklahoma City in 1972, with a mission to,"Honor God by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles".
On Wednesday the "Becket Fund for Religious Liberty," on behalf of Hobby Lobby, filed a lawsuit against the Health and Human Services Mandate.
Hobby Lobby is a family owned business and the founder says the mandate conflicts with his beliefs.
The CEO of Hobby Lobby said, "Our family is now being forced to choose to follow the laws of the land that we love, or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful, and have supported our families and supported thousands of our employees and their families, we simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate."
Hobby Lobby is the first non-Catholic-owned corporation to sue over the Health Care Mandate made by the Obama administration.
We spoke with Green's attorney who told KETK that this mandate has put Hobby Lobby in an impossible position.
The attorney, Eric Baxter told KETK, "The law provides it if they drop their insurance they would have to pay 26 million dollars in fees annually and if they provide insurance with out all of those contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, then they would be fined 1.3 million dollars a day."
We also asked some East Texans if they agree with Green's decision.
One said, "I think everyone has their own opinion." Another person said, "I figure that stuff should be private, not exposed to everything." Another woman said she thinks more companies should be filing lawsuits over this mandate.
The company's attorney says that right now, he isn't sure how a loss in court would affect Hobby Lobby employees.
He also said, "Well that's the reason why hobby lobby has brought this lawsuit, this is an impossible situation that they've been put in, they're being forced to either compromise their religious values or pay these crippling fines, and so the purpose of this lawsuit is to resolve this issue before that takes effect."
Hobby Lobby has until January 1st for this mandate to go into effect.