The Hobby Lobby Case as Political Clickbait

The Supreme Court’s decision in
the Hobby Lobby case this morning was bad news for the Obama
administration, which sought to defend its rule that large
employers have to provide contraceptive coverage under Obamacare’s
essential benefits rules. But there was a silver lining for the
president’s party: The ruling created an opportunity for fund
raising, as well as a political talking point going into this
year’s midterm elections.

Via Politico, the fundraising appeals have
already started:

Shortly after the court’s 5-4
decision in Burwell v.
Hobby Lobby, which said for-profit employers with
religious objections can opt out of providing contraception
coverage under Obamacare, the liberal fundraising emails went
flying. Democratic candidates and liberal groups were seeking to
collect scores of new email addresses and bank last-minute cash
contributions in advance of the monthly FEC deadline at midnight
Monday.

“It’s disgusting: The Supreme Court just ruled that corporations
can deny women insurance coverage for birth control,” the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a fundraising
request less than two hours after the decision.

“It’s a shameful day for our country. But we CAN’T let the GOP
use this to steal the momentum, erase our lead, and take over the
Senate. The consequences would be dire. With just 14 hours to go
before the most critical FEC deadline of this election, please
pitch in to stop a GOP Senate takeover,” the Senate Democrats wrote
in an email with the all-caps subject line “SUPREME COURT
DECISION.”

Welcome to the bizarro world of modern fundraising, where even
bad news can be good for the bottom line. A loss in a big policy
fight means outrage, anger and lots of small-dollar campaign
contributions from riled-up grass-roots supporters.

It’s not just a fundraising tool, either. Democrats are also
likely to lean on the decision in their get-out-the-vote efforts
this November. The decision is already generating a lot of
controversy with single women, a demographic that Democrats are
heavily targeting
ahead of the next election. Senior Democrats are already making
an issue of the case, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) and others in his party
signaling that they may pursue a legislative response.

“I will introduce legislation that requires all corporations
using this Supreme Court decision to deny or limit contraception
services to disclose this policy to all employed and applicants for
employment,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il.), the Senate Majority Whip,
said in a statement today,
according to Roll Call. “Workers have a right to know
if their employers are restricting the availability of a full range
of family planning coverage.”

You can expect to hear a lot more along these lines as the
election nears.

To be clear: I am not at all suggesting that the
administration was hoping or intending to lose in court. But this
does help explain, at least somewhat, why the administration was so
eager to pursue the case, which in the immediate future will have
relatively little practical impact (it impacts only closely held
corporations, and only four specific forms of contraception)
instead of just letting Hobby Lobby have an exemption and not
making a Supreme Court case out of it.

It’s the political/legal equivalent of online clickbait; it
grabs the attention of large numbers of people, sparks their
interests and passions, and gets them engaged (or at least
enraged). That doesn’t mean the administration set out to lose, or
doesn’t care about having lost. But it does potentially change the
calculus about whether and how hard to press an issue like this by
offering some real benefits just for fighting the fight, even in
the event of a defeat.