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Hobby Lobby, birth control and the US Supreme Court
I had never heard of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby before they took the lease for the old Bed Bath & Beyond space on Warren so wanted to do a deeper dive on this particular retailer. They just opened their first store in the city, on Staten Island, in March.
So here’s the reason, other than the fact that they are HUGE with 1000 store across the country, that they were in the news: in 2014, cabinet manufacturer Conestoga Wood Specialties and Hobby Lobby brought cases against the federal Department of Health and Human Services (known in the case as Burwell, the HHS secretary at the time) under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which required group health plans to furnish “preventive care and screenings” for women without “any cost sharing requirements.” Congress did not specify what types of preventive care must be covered; it authorized the Health Resources and Services Administration, a component of HHS, to decide, and it included contraceptions that prevented an already fertilized egg from developing any further by inhibiting its attachment to the uterus.
Religious employers, such as churches, were exempt from this contraceptive mandate. HHS had also effectively exempted religious nonprofit organizations with religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services. Under this accommodation, the insurance issuer must exclude contraceptive coverage from the employer’s plan and provide plan participants with separate payments for contraceptive services.
But as for-profit corporations, Conestoga Wood Specialties and Hobby Lobby were not part of the exemption, so they sued under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the government from substantially burdening a *person’s* exercise of religion. “The owners of the closely held for-profit corporations have sincere Christian beliefs that life begins at conception and that it would violate their religion to facilitate access to contraceptive drugs or devices that operate after that point,” is how Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute summarized the case.
The District Court denied Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, holding that a for-profit corporation could not “engage in religious exercise” under the Religious Freedom Act or the First Amendment, and that the mandate imposed no requirements on the company’s owners in their personal capacity. But then the Tenth Circuit reversed, and held that the Hobby Lobby family businesses are “persons” under the RFRA, and the contraceptive mandate substantially burdened their exercise of religion.
The case made its way to the US Supreme Court, where the majority opinion agreed with the reversal, saying that Hobby Lobby and other “closely held corporations” could deny birth control coverage to their employees. Justices Alito and Kennedy wrote the majority opinion and Justices Ginsburg and Kagan wrote the dissent. Justice Ginsburg noted that to date, the Religious Freedom exemptions had only been applied to individual people, not to businesses. She added that the ruling “opened the door to the denial of other kinds of health care as well as employees’ other rights, based on their bosses’ beliefs,” Planned Parenthood summarized.
The ruling set a new precedent. But the “Obama administration quickly swept in to close the loophole: Although Hobby Lobby-like companies can refuse to cover birth control in their health plans, health insurance companies must directly provide birth control at no cost to employees,” Planned Parenthood summarized.
But wait, there’s more! N. sent a link to the full-page ad that Hobby Lobby ran in newspapers across the country on July 4, 2021, implying that the United States should be a Christian theocracy. The ad included quotes from George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams as well as other figures from history, titled “Founding Fathers,” “Supreme Court Justices,” “Congress,” “Education,” “Supreme Court Rulings” and “Foreign Opinion.”
You can read the Snopes explanation of that ad and its reverberations here.
Just to repeat from the last post, the entire two-story space at 270 Greenwich is 236,000 square feet, including Whole Foods, which has 69,000 square feet downstairs. Crain’s said that Hobby Lobby has taken 70,000 square feet, leaving one of the two upstairs spaces up for grabs still. The leasing company’s listing says the space is 100 percent leased. Barnes & Noble left in January 2024; Bed Bath & Beyond left in March 2023.
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thank you for providing the context for why so many people have a problem with this store opening up in our neighborhood. And we should not forget that they are also very opposed to LGBTQIA+ rights. I am planning to organize protests and a boycott against the store, to let them know that many of their neighbors don’t want them here. Hatred and intolerance should not have a home in this wonderful community.
I agree, there is no room in this neighborhood for that kind of close minded bigotry. Please let us know about protests, I’d love to participate. Hobby lobby won’t see a dime of my money.
They don’t belong here. Let me know about the protest, I would like to join.
Happy to see that there is so much opposition. I truly hope the store goes under quickly. If you want Arts and Crafts, go to Michael’s on the Upper West Side.
Michael’s is in Chelsea, Sixth Ave around 20th St.
Blick, just above Canal, also has plenty of crafts materials.
Don’t bite your nose to spite your face just bc you don’t agree with the (irrelevant) stance of the founders. I hope the store does incredibly well. It’s good for the neighborhood, and it’s good for the city to have a store that employs dozens of people + brings in millions in tax revenue.
Freedom of religion is one of the main factors in our Founding Fathers establishing the United States. It is truly an expression of our creators intention of free will. In other words our decisions, not a group of extremists white men deciding what religion anyone should choose, get to decide on their own merits and judgements without being “told” or instructed on scripture translations by prejudices of the “rich” in God few. I seem to remember the meek shall inherit the earth not the bigoted. These people are “menu” Christians, pick and choose what fits, forget the rest.
Hopefully this goes out of business soon after it opens. The landlords should suffer for depriving us of B&N (and BBB to an extent). A Hobby Lobby is absolutely not needed in this neighborhood. Clearly bad management from the landlord not knowing the neighborhood and merely willing to rent to the highest bidder. They could’ve done ANYTHING else with that space – heck, even an indoor pickleball court would’ve been miles better than this.
The landlord didn’t deprive Tribeca of anything. Tribeca residents, workers and tourists bought books and housewares online instead of at stores and, like in thousands of locations around America, the local B&N and BBB ceased to be viable.
It isn’t the landlord’s job to subsidize your vision for the character of your neighborhood. Every landlord is going to rent to the highest bidder. The highest bidder will be the business willing to bet the most that you and your neighbors want to spend money on their product/service and generate the highest profit per square foot.
Tribeca gets exactly the “character” that Tribeca’s spending habits purchase.
Until you deed restrict your apartment requiring it can only be sold at a discount to an emerging artist or sublet it below market to a writer, please stop hypocritically an immaturely asking other people to pay for what you wish Tribeca was.
Well said, Thomas, here here!
Yes, but a landlord can work within a community and their needs. Noone here needs 70,000 sq ft of blessed Made in China craft-plastic, even toddler-filled Tribeca. Perhaps something like a home depot or a nordstrom rack would have been more of service. There are ways to negotiate with retailers and create leases that would have been mutually beneficial for everyone, including the neighborhood
^^^what he said^^^
You don’t like a store? Don’t patronize it but stop trying to impose your prejudices on others.
Please keep us up to date Mary – I want to join in on the protest. Where is Chris Marte on all this?!
Where is Marte on this?
For that matter, can anybody point to a single accomplishment or initiative of Marte’s that has improved Tribeca in the slightest?
The real question should be, where were all the residents on election day to vote Marte out? The turnout for local non-major elections is kind of embarassing. Marte is ineffective but not many came to vote. Also what exactly would be city council’s role be in preventing leasing to legit (albeit objectionable) retail ?
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Soho Art Materials – 3 Wooster Street
Blick – 443 Broadway
Scrap Yard NYC – 300 West Broadway
Paper Source SoHo – 237 Centre Street
Michaels – 675 6th Av
Target – Greenwich street has some craft supplies
Staples has some craft supplies
Oh, and Matt – they all create jobs without promoting the control of women’s bodies or denigrating LGBTQIA rights in the name of their “God”
A craft and hobby store is not going to survive here. I give it two years max
Lol. I give it 1.
Their values are not aligned with mine, so I will avoid this store. I cannot stop them from coming to our neighborhood but I can redirect my $$$ elsewhere.
Just going to put this here: https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-returns-thousands-ancient-artifacts-seized-hobby-lobby-iraq
While the Barnes location is empty the landlord should let it be a pop-up teenage club house. A place where kids can hang out since this area has nothing for 12-18 year old kids. When it gets dark they roam from Starbucks (told to leave or closes early) to Rockefeller Park (chased out by police) over to Winter Garden (again asked to leave).
All that empty space could be used as a place to socialize (no cell phones allowed 😀), play games, movie nights, have a snack bar, ice crean shop or pizza place. Friday night dances. During the day, an extra place to play games or go and study. Even let younger kids have birthday parties. All of the residential buildings that have common space rooms go out of their way to prevent the kids from using them. I would pay an entrance fee knowing my kids were in a safe environment. More than anything I believe most of us grew up in areas that had a place to go as teenagers. You would think NYC would offer something similar. BTW, how many of us have paid $50 to let our kids go up to a midtown underage club which we find out normally gets shut down after 40 minutes. We also drive them both ways or pay for an expensive Uber. A teen club with good security close by would fill a void.
Most businesses in Tribeca are run by left wing progressives and no one seems to mind. How about some diversity and inclusion and welcome some folks who are different from you? I don’t share their views on religion and contraception but I respect their right to think differently. I’ve shopped at Hobby Lobby stores before. They will be a great addition to the neighborhood.
They must have known the character of Tribeca when they signed the lease. I admire their courage in standing up to sanctimonious intolerant activists. i think the fresh air will be good for the hood.