The latest in the string of extended consequences (predicted by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) in the Hobby Lobby ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court:

The decision has been cited by a Utah federal judge who said its religion protection shields a fundamentalist Mormon from questions in a child labor investigation.

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.

Here’s the nub of it:


Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA, said the ruling shows how “Hobby Lobby threatens to make religious believers a law into themselves.”

Many Arkansas Republican legislators already held that belief and practice it in lawmaking.