In case you were living under a rock yesterday, the conservative judicial activists on the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that some closely held for-profit companies can pick and choose which laws they want to follow, based on the personal religious beliefs of the owners of those companies.
Some corporations have religious rights, a deeply divided Supreme Court decided Monday in ruling that certain for-profit companies cannot be required to pay for specific types of contraceptives for their employees.
The 5-4 decision on ideological lines ended the high court’s term with a legal and political setback for a controversial part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.
It also set off a frenzied partisan debate over religious and reproductive rights that will continue through the November congressional elections and beyond.
All five conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents ruled in favor of closely held for-profit businesses — those with at least 50% of stock held by five or fewer people, such as family-owned businesses — in which the owners have clear religious beliefs.
As noted by Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post, yesterday’s ruling could have some interesting implications for folks who want to pick and choose which of our nation’s laws to follows under the auspices of their religious beliefs.
As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered aloud in her dissent, “Would the exemption … extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus)?”
My thoughts on yesterday’s ruling can be summed up thusly:
Today's SCOTUS ruling on Hobby Lobby & contraceptives is a loss for conservatives, because it'll likely result in a need for more abortions.
— Blogging Blue (@BloggingBlue) July 1, 2014
This doesn’t leave (right to choose) RTC advocates with no place to go. thay can buy a rider to their company policy. It costs them some more money. But those families who want their children to be taught a religion have to pay much more for that right…unless they receive a voucher, and who knows what entanglements that might bring in the future.
Of course since the conservatives have been so successful in closing down abortion clinics state by state with admitting privileges and other requirements that they can block without actually making abortion illegal, what it will really result in is more kids nobody wanted and nobody treats well.