In a 5-4 decision and along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that, certain for-profit companies are not required to pay for specific types of contraceptives for their employees under the healthcare law known as Obamacare. The ruling, which applies only to companies owned by a small number of shareholders, means workers of those companies will have to get birth control from other sources.
Justice Samuel Alito, in his majority opinion for the conservative justices wrote, employees could still get birth control under an accommodation of the Obamacare law that the administration has already introduced for religious-affilitated nonprofits. The accommodation makes provision for health insurance companies to provide the coverage without the employer being involved.
“A corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends,” Alito said. “Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby, Conestoga and Mardel protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those companies.”
The court’s four liberal justices characterized the ruling as one of “startling breadth” and said that it allows companies to opt out of any law they deemed incompatible with their religious beliefs.
In her dissent, Justice Ginsburg, warned that the ruling would have wide repercussions and “untoward effects.”
“In a decision of startling breadth, the court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law … they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” she wrote.
Legal analysts, dissecting the majority ruling said, it is a narrow one and applies only to those for-profit companies with at least 50% of stock held by five or fewer people such as family owned businesses where owners have firmly held religious beliefs.
One thing is clear, the ruling has reignited a national debate on women’s health and access to birth control that will no doubt continue through to the November election.
