Narrow decision? Hobby Lobby decision likely to open a legal floodgate

[LuckyTheDog]

When the Supreme Court ruled Monday that Hobby Lobby, a craft store chain owned by a Southern Baptist family, could opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to cover specific types of contraception for employees, it may well have set in motion a raft of similar challenges. The language of conservative Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion may have sounded narrow--it confined the decision to “closely held” businesses--but the precedent it set is likely not.

The ruling only applied to four types of contraception: the “morning-after” pills Ella and Plan B, and two intrauterine devices (IUDs), referred to by people who object to them as “abortifacients.” The ACA’s contraception mandate stipulates sixteen forms of contraception must be provided, so Hobby Lobby will still have to provide twelve other contraceptive methods to their employees. But Lyle Denniston of SCOTUS Blog says all sixteen contraceptives may be easy targets for future cases.

“Depending upon how lower courts now interpret the Hobby Lobby decision, companies that fit within the Court’s ‘closely held company’ bracket and offer religious objections could be spared from having to provide any of those services through their employee health plans,” Denniston wrote.

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/hobby-lobby-decision-likely-open-legal-floodgate/

[Historic NY]

1. I want to become a sole corporation....

I have a firm religious aversion to not paying taxes to Caesar.

[COLGATE4]

2. The USSCt made clear the next day

that this ruling applies to all contraceptives, not just the four mentioned in the original decision. The 'it doesn't apply to 16' is a myth.

[redqueen]

3. Thank you

Is it really so hard to fact check before publishing?

[COLGATE4]

4. The media all ran, almost falling down in their haste

to convince the public that the decision 'really wasn't so bad, no big deal, only affects 4 contraceptive methods'. So much so that the USSCt published their clarification the very next day, making clear to all that, no, they really meant all forms of contraception.

[LiberalLoner]

5. Since health insurance is part of our compensation,

Does this mean corporations can also dictate what we are allowed to buy with our other compensation (wages)?