Forced underage marriage church uses Hobby Lobby to defend itself in child labor case

[The repercussions of making dumb decisions is sometimes insurmountable. It will be most interesting, over the next several years, to see how the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court deal with the backlash to their Hobby Lobby decision. Will they continue on the path of making the U.S. a theocracy, or will they find some crazy-ass way to limit the nonsense? - Bozo]
.
Rss@dailykos.com (laura Clawson)
Saturday, September 20, 2014, 7:46 pm
.
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 Church 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 Church 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 mainstream Mormon church, 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 church'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.
.
{Source}