On June 30, the world did not end. For all the drama and hype that the Hobby Lobby case has generated, the Supreme Court decision was modest and quite narrow, as widely predicted by Court watchers. The central question was whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protected for-profit corporations from complying with the so-called contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act on grounds that it was a violation of their religious beliefs. The Court’s 5-4 majority opinion, led by Justice Samuel Alito, said yes. As a result, the religious exemption claims of Hobby Lobby’s owners are evaluated by a test including a least restrictive means prong which the mandate failed to satisfy. That means the owners are exempted from having to pay for health insurance coverage for the four contraceptives they challenged. In solomonic fashion, the burden instead is passed on to either the government, or in the interest of efficiency, to the private insurer which would have to provide separate payments for the contraceptive services that are required to be covered, all without imposing any additional costs on the affected employees.
Let me clarify at the outset what the Court did and did not say. The Court did acknowledge that women’s health is a compelling and legitimate government interest, one that Justice Kennedy took care to also point out in his brief concurring opinion. It did interpret RFRA’s definition of persons to include for-profit corporations, but limited it to closely-held corporations. It also noted that the protection is not for the organization per se but for the actual humans associated with the corporation. Lastly, in order to address slippery slope concerns, the Court explicitly stated that the exemption only covers contraception, and does not include exemptions from immunizations or illegal hiring discrimination.
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