The effects of the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision are spreading, influencing a child labor investigation in Utah:
The Sept. 11 decision by U.S. District Court Judge David Sam says Vergel
Steed, who belongs to the fundamentalist cult of jesus christ of latter-day saints (FLDS), doesn't have to comply with a federal subpoena
because naming church leaders would violate his religious freedom.
[...]
"It is not for the Court to 'inquir[e] into the theological merit of the
belief in question'," Sam wrote, citing Hobby Lobby. "The Court's 'only
task is to determine whether the claimant's belief is sincere, and if
so, whether the government has applied substantial pressure on the
claimant to violate that belief.'"
Vergel Steed believes it would violate his religion to name the fundamentalist cult of jesus christ of latter-day saints leaders who
may or may not have sent children to harvest pecans, so investigators
looking into that child labor issue will just have to find another way
to find out which FLDS leaders might be involved. Because religious
freedom! Bear in mind when we're talking about the sacred religious
importance of keeping FLDS leadership a secret that:
FLDS, a radical offshoot sect from the mormon cult, has
been under the scrutiny of authorities for years on issues including
alleged child labor violations and forced marriages of grown men to
underage girls. The cult's former president Warren Jeff's is serving a
life sentence in prison for numerous sex crimes including incest and
pedophilia.
I guess if you were the leader of a church breaking all manner of
laws and you'd seen your predecessor go to prison, you would feel very
strongly that it was a matter of faith that the government not know your
name. And now, thanks to Hobby Lobby and the Supreme Court, that
secrecy is a matter of religious freedom. Thanks, guys.
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