The internet continues to react to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Hobby Lobby case, in which they determined that closely-held corporations can claim religious exemptions to providing contraception to their employees.
Here’s some early reaction.
Mother Jones gives you the 8 best lines in Justice Ginsberg’s dissent here. if you need it in soundbites.
Yahoo News gives you a longer analysis of her dissent here. Notably, she points out that this decision will open the door to all manner of problems in employer-provided health care. What happens when employers object to providing coverage for narcotic pain medication? Or organ transplants? Or hospice care? What, specifically, makes contraception coverage different?
The White House chimed in, with the President issuing a statement, saying that the decision today put the health of women employees at risk across the country.
Tobin Grant, a blogger for the Religious News Service, describes this as a win for religious liberty, but a blow for women’s health, though narrow in both directions.
He explained:
And the Court went out of its way to stress the relative narrowness of its decision today. During oral arguments in March, Justice Kagan wondered whether, should the Greens prevail, future employers may deny covering blood transfusions or vaccinations in insurance coverage on religious grounds. Others worried that employers may use this decision to justify discrimination in hiring on religious grounds.
Today’s majority opinion quickly and explicitly dispatched most of these concerns. But the Court did not address whether religious employers denying homosexuals employment would fall under RFRA protection – that is apparently a question for another day.
Read the piece here.
Religious News Service did get a full reaction round up, available here.
For more analysis, head to Think Progress weighs in with why this decision is a problem for religion, saying, in part:
These voices represent the majority of religious Americans who insist that today’s pro-Hobby Lobby decision isn’t about protecting “religious liberty.” Instead, it’s just a victory for one kind of religion, specifically the (usually conservative) faith of those privileged enough to own and operate massive corporations. That might be good news for the wealthy private business owners like the heads of Hobby Lobby, but for millions of religious Americans sitting in the pews — not to mention thousands working in Hobby Lobby stores — their sacred and constitutional right to religious freedom just became compromised.