Ninth Circuit rejects pharmacists' religious-conscience claims

The Los Angeles Times has the story, here:

The right to freely exercise one's religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.

"Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices, or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules," the panel said.

At First Things, Wesley Smith warns that (among other things) the decision "also means that all pharmacists in the state must dispense death to terminally ill patients in Washington who receive lethal prescriptions."  Paul Moses, at Commonweal, weighs in here,

I wonder whether Pres. Obama's much-touted-by-some-Catholics "reasonable conscience clause" would protect these pharmacists?