Did The Virgin Mary Influence The Supreme Court?

In 2014, three corporations argued to the United States Supreme Court that paying premiums for health insurance made them a cause of abortions. The insurance included no coverage for abortions. It did, however, as federal law required, cover IUDs and emergency contraception. The Supreme Court ruled that requiring the corporations to pay for this insurance violated their right to freely exercise religion.

The five justices in the majority were Catholic. The corporations' religious objections mirrored those of the Roman Catholic Church.

This short book traces how the Catholic image of the Virgin Mary--who is honored as mother and "ever virgin"--and the Church's rules about women, contraceptives, and sex influence culture in the United States, including its legal system.

In a conversational, easy-to-follow style, the author (who is both a thriller writer and a lawyer) takes the reader through:

•What the gospels say about the Virgin Mary (not much);

•The Catholic Church’s view of the “perfect” and “pure” woman as both virgin and mother;

•The amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief filed by the 67 Roman Catholic theologians and ethicists;

•The legal reasoning of the justices who wrote the majority opinion and the principal dissent in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.

How much influence did the Catholic Church and its beliefs about The Virgin Mary influence the Court? Read today and see for yourself.