WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower court rulings in favor of businesses that object to covering all 20 methods of government-approved contraception.
Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Inc. and a Pennsylvania furniture maker won their court challenges Monday in which they refused to pay for two emergency contraceptive pills and two intrauterine devices.
Tuesday’s orders apply to companies owned by Catholics who oppose all contraception. Cases involving Colorado-based Hercules Industries Inc., Illinois-based Korte & Luitjohan Contractors Inc. and Indiana-based Grote Industries Inc. were awaiting action pending resolution of the Hobby Lobby case.
They are among roughly 50 lawsuits from profit-seeking corporations that object to the contraceptive coverage requirement in their health plans for employees. Contraception is among a range of preventive services that must be included in the health plans, at no extra cost to workers.
The justices also ordered lower courts that ruled in favor of the Obama administration to reconsider thosedecisions in light of Monday’s 5-4 decision.
Two Michigan-based companies, Autocam Corp. and Eden Foods Inc., both lost their cases in the lower courts. The justices ordered the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decisions against the companies.
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EDEN FOODS. Glad to know where they stand. I’ll let them know where I stand. Its easy not to put their products in my shopping cart.
That didn’t take long - Ruth Bader Ginsberg was so right about the broader implications of this decision (and it has only been 24 hours)
Sure. But it still doesn’t apply to other legal medications or medical procedures, just birth control? I suspect the court will clarify how expansive this ruling is just about the time that people stop paying attention.
Better stock up on your medications now before your boss suddenly decides he’s a Christian Scientist.
The court already said it applies only to contraception.
I totally get that is what they said. (I am literate, thanks for your concern anyway.) Based on their ruling yesterday, that logic is not going to hold for long and they know it. Unless somehow the Supreme Court has decided that some religious objections to some medications are greater than other religious objections to other medications, and have also found a way to square this with the establishment clause of the First Amendment. They specifically mention that religious objection can’t allow privately held corporations to deny coverage of vaccines, because vaccines are in the public interest, but this seems to indicate that the “public interest” in this matter is arbitrary. If contraception is not deemed to be in the public interest, and therefore can’t be mandated in insurance, what other medications do you feel could be seen as not being in the public interest while also going against someones professed ‘sincere’ religious beliefs? Insulin? HIV meds? Chemotherapy? Blood transfusions? Prozac? Lipitor? And the court has also ruled that it’s not an issue of whether or not contraception is in fact an abortifacient (it’s not), but whether these companies “believe” them to potentially be abortifacients. Based on that ruling, do you you have faith that these companies won’t be able to get away with denying health insurance coverage to a wide variety of legal medications and medical services, based on their completely wrong belief about what these medications and medical procedures could potentially lead to or be used for?
Do you trust that Alito is writing his rulings in good faith? Best of luck with that!