The Supreme Court finished its term with its usual dramatic flair with the release of the long-waited decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores (which is consolidated with Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius). The two cases represent a classic split in the circuits with the Tenth Circuit agreeing with Hobby Lobby as to the religious claims of the company while the Third Circuit ruled against such claims by Conestoga Wood Specialities Corp. The Court ruled that the Hobby Lobby does have religious rights, but limited the decision to closely-held corporations. Where Citizen’s United recognized that corporations have free speech rights like individuals, Hobby Lobby would do the same thing for religious rights. I will be running a column in the Los Angeles Times in the morning not just addressing this ruling but, once again, highlighting what I consider a far more important case that will be decided just a couple blocks away in the D.C. Circuit — Halbig v. Sebelius. I will be discussing the decisions today at CNN starting at 10 am and continuing to the discussion at 1 pm with Wolf Blitzer.
Hobby Lobby is a fascinating case involving the retail arts and craft chain founded by David Green and owned by his family, which also happen to be Evangelical Christians. The Greens actually do not object to all of the 20 forms of birth control under the ACA. However, they are religiously opposed to supplying four methods: morning-after pills Plan B and Ella as well as two kinds of inter-uterine devices (or IUDs). (The Conestoga company is smaller and owed by Hahn family, who are Mennonite Christians) At a running fine of $100 per employee, Hobby Lobby estimates that the federal mandate would cost it about $1.3 million a day, or roughly $475 million a year.
The religious beliefs of the family are formally integrated into their company: Green family members signed a formal commitment to run the stores according to Christian religious principles, including closing on Sunday, advertising their religious orientation. The company even plays religious music inside their stores.
The Greens challenged the provisions under the and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which imposes a high standard of strict scrutiny for the government to meet when a neutral law “substantially burden[s] a person’s exercise of religion”. (Note some amicus briefs suggest that the mandatory plan should also be barred for these purpose under the Establishment Clause). In 2013, United States District Court Judge Joe Heaton granted the company a temporary exemption from the contraceptive-providing mandate. (Conestoga directly raises free exercise arguments).
In an interesting wrinkle, an April article in Mother Jones alleged that Hobby Lobby’s employee retirement plan has more than $73M invested in mutual funds which include manufacturers of some fo the very contraception devices or drugs cited in the complaint.
The decision has sweeping application – well beyond these companies or the 49 for-profit corporations that have claimed such exemptions. The ruling addresses the very essence of a religious claim and the very essence of a corporate entity.
Closely-held corporations are not as limited as it might seem. I agree with Ginsberg that the implications are sweeping. The closely-held corporations represent a huge number of businesses. As I mentioned on CNN, the large corporations are the least likely to demand such exemptions. There are millions of family businesses that may not object not just to the ACA but renew objections to discrimination laws that force such businesses to serve same-sex weddings or engage in other activities that violate their religious beliefs. This is much like Heller and the recognition of individual gun rights. We are still working out the details on how far that goes years after the decision.
This is a major blow to the Administration which in the last ten days have been found to have violated the fourth amendment and privacy and then found to be in violation of the separation of powers and now found in violation of the first amendment and religious freedom.
It was a blow to the constitution, not the Administration, JT.
Like other significant hoaxes that are beyond politics and law.
You do not ruin one group of people in order to benefit another. Is this actually a question???
What has happened to debate where people convince themselves that Obamacare is the only way to improve healthcare? Or get the “screw the middle class” mentality? Because we have to do SOMETHING? Heck, I know the termite infested house burned to the ground, but we had to do SOMETHING, right? That’s the basic argument. And it falls just as flat.
But keep pushing how great Obamacare is. Just wait until the employer mandate hits. The Democratic Party owns this debacle 100%. They have made their bed and they can lie in it.
Karen S
I can guess that you are in favor of placing Religious exemptions into the workplace for owners and managers to assess their workers by… when hiring?
When does it become discriminatory?
Hospitals and ERs could not turn the poor away. Hence the crowded ERs that healthcare reform was supposed to address.
I know someone who was indigent, and received lifesaving chemotherapy for her stage IV melanoma around 15 years ago.
Karen S
Is the Mosque a public employer?
mespo:
vs today when more middle class families than ever before will go bankrupt due to health care costs, or have to choose between paying for insurance or paying for gas or food.
Yep. That’s Real Progress!
Max – Hobby Lobby does not require its female employees to forego birth control, or do anything else in their private lives. It just doesn’t want to pay for 4 of the 20 options.
Those hard-pressed female employees have 16 out of 20 birth control methods to choose from. What an embarrassment of riches.
The progressive constraint of… Wheelchair ramps?
The progressive constraint of… equal housing?
The progressive constraint of… equal pay?
Karen S:
“In “the old days” of a couple of years ago, the health insurance industry was market driven.”
*******************
True enough and more than 25,000 of your fellow Americans died each and every year due to lack of health care. Those were the good ol’ days for conservatives. Great folks!
Max-1, Then go work for someone who is line with your beliefs and I will do the same. See, having the choice, makes us both happy.
Max – yes, the dress code at a mosque requires a hijab.
Now those lucky Hobby Lobbyists can pay for the health care of all the resulting unwanted and unintended pregnancies.
That shouldn’t be more than two or three hundred times the cost of the birth control prescriptions.
Hobby Lobby is willing to and has regularly paid for a long list of contraceptives. What they will not pay for are 4 specific drugs which they believe constitute abortion.
Mike
EXACTLY!
Nick, I still throw up grass every inning. Also because even though I can see the flag blowing, it doesn’t always tell me what is happening near me.
Jim22
No one is forcing me. I never said as much. You’re reading too much between the lines.
Of course, not withstanding, my concerns of freedom FROM religious constraints also supports your freedom, too. Irony that no one get’s that.
Of course it’s never Sharia styled laws when they’re Christian Sharia styled laws…
Guess this means that (since the corporation’s right is based on the first amendment rights of individuals) individuals must perforce have individual rights on grounds of religious belief to exempt themselves from federal mandates which impinge on those sincerely held beliefs. So now, as a Conscientious Objector, I no longer can be required to pay the percentage of my taxes which support the military operations of the United States. Same goes for Quakers and Mennonites. Welcome to Alito’s Slippery Slope.
Paul C. Schulte
The progressive constraint of… eating at a lunch counter while black?
The progressive constraint of… voting in an election while female?
The progressive constraint of… a 40 hour work week?
The progressive constraint of… retirement with a pension?
Max-1 -“Where’s my Liberty to be free FROM Religious constraints placed upon me?”
I didn’t know you were being forced to work for Hobby Lobby.
Although Bush sunk to 26 percent in that poll, Clinton never went so low. We did not have an uprising when Bush sent the country into recession so why now, nick? I think SCOTUS will go down more after this ruling. Planned Parenthood and other women’s groups will raise tons of money off this decision for the 2014 and 2016 elections. We really need to flip the court..
Paul C. Schulte
What progressive constraints?