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A report from the ground from Br. Joshua Caswell:

This Friday, June 8, at noon local time across the country, tens of thousands of Americans, in over 150 cities coast to coast, took to the streets in public protest against the HHS Mandate during the second nationwide Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally.

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This time the flagship rally held at Chicago’s Federal Plaza took an interesting twist—suddenly transforming from a formal political rally to a Swing dance festival!

Media pundit and blogger, Jill Stanek danced unannounced on stage to a Jazz Band at the end of her speech. At the same time hundreds of youth converged on already crowded plaza wearing 1930’s style outfits, carrying huge clusters of yellow balloons and shooting yellow confetti into the crowd as cheers erupted.

The exuberant and festive Swing Dance theme was an attempt to “swing public opinion” announced organizers, “in less than a year we won’t have this kind of freedom.”

The date for the Stand Up Rally was chosen to highlight the HHS Mandate’s unconstitutional infringement of religious freedom, coming just weeks before the highly anticipated ruling on Obamacarefrom the U. S. Supreme Court, expected at the end of June.

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“If Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, we must ensure that religious freedom will be protected in subsequent health care legislation” explained Stand Up Rally national co-director Monica Miller. “But if Obamacare is not struck down, we’ll be sending the federal authorities a clear message that the faith based institutions and private businesses affected by the HHS Mandate simply will not comply with it.

More photos here