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The challenge in courts over the business everyone’s heard of, Hobby Lobby, started with the Affordable Care Art, better known as Obamacare. One aspect of the bill requires employers with over 50 employees to provide health insurance. This includes preventative care such as birth control, with four of those methods of contraception stopping an already fertilized egg from developing further.
In the 2014 Supreme Court case of Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, certain for-profit corporations refused to pay for those four contraceptive methods based on the owner’s religious values. Hobby Lobby is a corporation, which means the company is its own legal entity separate from the people who own it. The Green family, who started the company and whose son is the CEO, run the company based on a dedication to the Christian principles and values of the Green family.
The initial lawsuit claims that the family’s religious beliefs, “Forbid them from participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and services”. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in the favor of Hobby Lobby, essentially saying that businesses can hold religious views under federal law when its owners closely hold and operate the corporation or business.
The Supreme Court justices in formation. S/O to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the far right. Image credit www.nbcnews.com
The ruling of the court was 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby. Justice Alito, Justice Roberts, Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, and the late Justice Scalia voted in favor of Hobby Lobby. That leaves Justice Ginsburg (bless up ~RBJ~), Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan dissenting from the opinion of the majority. Notice that of the four that dissented from the majority, THREE OF THEM WERE WOMEN. Funny how all the women voted in favor to coverage of all contraceptive care, ain’t it? ☺
Hobby Lobby co-founders Barbara and David Green. Photo Credit to The Seattle Times.
What’s Happening Now?
The current case that the Supreme Court sent back to lower courts means they avoided issuing a major ruling on the contraceptive mandate challenged by religiously affiliated non-profit groups. The Affordable Care Act has an opt-out provision, which requires the employer to notify the government or the insurance company, which these religious non-profits are claiming would make them enablers of birth control use. The organizations would like to be completely exempt which means their employees will not have birth control coverage.
There have been 9 cases that have been brought to the courts by religious non-profits. 8 out of the 9 have lost, but one case was ruled in favor, which is where the conflict arose. The cases went through appeals and traveled up to the Supreme Court; however, the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia complicated a potential resolution. As a result, the Supreme Court sent 17 cases back in order to push the lower courts to find a compromise and resolution. The Supreme Court urged them to establish a compromise that would reconcile the need to provide free birth control coverage to women who are employed by religiously affiliated universities, hospital, charities, etc. with the religious objections of those organizations.
There’s no doubt that the Vacancy of the 9th Supreme Court Justice is greatly impacting the duties and actions of the government. President Obama nominated Chief Judge Merrick Garland on March 16, 2016. to fill Scalia’s vacancy. The Court tries to avoid a 4 to 4 tie, which lets the judgment of the lower court stand. This also means that there would not be one legal rule throughout the whole country, but rather access to birth control through religious employers would vary greatly region by region.
Congress, or rather certain stubborn and annoying GOP politicians, are choosing to prevent Obama from fulfilling his constitutional obligations and are holding the justice our society craves for ransom for political purposes. The fact that politicians can get away without doing their job is infuriating, and it’s one of the few jobs in America that we do not expect any sort of accountability from. Keep in mind that the November election means EVERY SEAT IN THE HOUSE is up. Whether we elect the same hardworking people, or whether we stiff out the incompetent incumbents and vote in new progressive and passionate lawmakers, our country needs to care about who we put in power to make the laws of the land.