The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act violated federal law by placing
a substantial burden on the exercise of religion when it required
“closely-held” private corporations such as Hobby Lobby Stores,
Inc. to cover certain forms of birth control in their employee
health plans.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito held that this
provision of the health care law, as applied to Hobby Lobby, ran
afoul of the terms of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA),
a 1993 law signed by President Bill Clinton which says the
government may not “substantially burden a person’s exercise of
religion,” unless it has a “compelling” justification and has used
“the least restrictive means” available.
“Under RFRA, a Government action that imposes a substantial
burden on religious exercise must serve a compelling government
interest, and we assume that the HHS regulations satisfy this
requirement. But in order for the HHS mandate to be sustained,”
Alito continued, “it must also constitute the least restrictive
means of serving that interest, and the mandate plainly fails that
test. There are other ways in which Congress or HHS could equally
ensure that every woman has cost-free access to the particular
contraceptives at issue here and, indeed, to all FDA-approved
contraceptives.”
Writing in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg charged the
majority with issuing “a decision of startling breadth.” In her
view, “the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including
corporations…can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they
judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious
beliefs.”
The Court’s opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores,
Inc. is available here.
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