July 7, 2014

Gitmo Detainees Cite Hobby Lobby in New Court Filing. Read It Here.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Defense.gov_News_Photo_030228-N-7676W-160.jpg">Chief Petty Officer John F. Williams</a>/US Navy

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In a new court filing, attorneys for two Guantanamo Bay detainees have invoked the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which allowed certain corporations to ignore the Obamacare contraception mandate if their owners object to it on religious grounds. The motions, filed with a Washington, DC, district court on behalf of Ahmed Rabbani of Pakistan and Emad Hassan of Yemen, ask the court to bar military officials from preventing Gitmo inmates from participating in communal prayer during Ramadan.

“Hobby Lobby makes clear that all persons—human and corporate, citizen and foreigner, resident and alien—enjoy the special religious free exercise protections of the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act],” the lawyers argue.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense told Al Jazeera America on Friday that the “Defense Department is aware of the filing,” and that the “government will respond through the legal system.”

Read the emergency motion for a temporary restraining order below:

 

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